


A Writer's Story

by CrystalHeartZyx



Series: ON HOLD STORIES [1]
Category: Once Upon A Time - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Lots of references to Final Fantasy, M/M, Not Henry/OC, Where has this story gone to?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 07:16:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19246414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalHeartZyx/pseuds/CrystalHeartZyx
Summary: After the events of Isaac and his story-changing is reversed, everyone tries to settle back into Storybrooke. But the day after everyone is returned, a woman with strange powers walks into town, intent on finding something lost to her, no matter what. But with her, she brings a threat that could destroy not only Storybrooke, but everything in existence.ON HOLD AT THE MOMENT





	1. A New Old Friend

A woman walked down an empty road. She knew where she was going, and she knew she was close.

Passing through the boarders of the town, she saw a sign appear beside the road.

"Storybrooke, huh?" She mused.

She continued down the road and into the town. All around were the people of fairy tales, documented in the Author's books. Well,  _one_  of the Author's books, anyway.

As she passed, people nodded in greeting, friendly to her despite her never having stepped foot within Storybrooke before. She knew they were cautious about new people entering the town, having had bad experience in the past, and so she made sure their memories told them she belonged. Better not to have any eyes on her before she reached her goal.

She greeted Granny as she got a room to stay in with ease. Room 13, just the way she liked it. Who says 13 is an unlucky number?

Once in her room, she sat upon her bed and then waved her hand. Before her, appeared several papers: maps, documents, notes in all different languages and codes, along with a couple books, big and small. She summoned a pen out of mid-air and then began to work.

If all her research was correct, what she was looking for was somewhere in this town. There were two power-houses here that were distinct targets for investigation. The "Evil Queen," also known as Regina, and "Rumpelstiltskin," or Mr. Gold. How fitting their names were, though she supposed that was the point of this makeshift town.

Taking a clean sheet of paper, she let her hands work on their own. Her pen danced across the page, an image appearing like magic. Though that was what it was, really.

Once she finished, she saw one image of a woman, and one of a man. These were her two targets she was looking for. She shook off her slight wave of fatigue. She was really overworking herself. But she was so close to what she was looking for.

 _" **Don't get anxious just because the finish line draws near,**_ " She reminded herself. " ** _Act as if it is still as far away as when you began. Nothing is guaranteed to one. It's not over until it's over._** "

She capped her pen and waved everything away. Tomorrow she would set out on her search once more, but for now, a night of rest.

* * *

The next day, she made for the town. First, of course, she went to the diner for breakfast.

"Hey Granny," She said.

"Usual?" Granny asked with an amused smile as she set a cup of tea in front of her.

"If it's not too much trouble."

"Comin' right up, Fang. Good to see you're still in top form."

"When am I not?"

"I can name a few times," She muttered before leaving to both cook and tend to her other customers.

Fang took a sip of her tea, made just the way she liked it despite never having physically crossed paths with Granny ever before. Everyone in this place would know her as a friend, even though she, in reality, hadn't ever had a past with any of them.

Then, Regina walked into the diner, accompanied by a boy who looked to be in his early teen years. Henry.

"Isaac's been caught and taken in," She reported to someone.

" ** _Isaac, huh?_** " Fang thought to herself. " _ **So, that sorry excuse for an Author was finally caught?**_ "

She could sense that he'd been messing with things recently. This town was covered in the aftereffects of some kind of Author permutation. He must've tried to re-write reality itself or something. Foolish man. Only a Writer is supposed to have such a skill, only a Writer would be trusted with that task. He didn't see the consequences of his actions, and it was her job in order to punish him. He broke many laws by doing what he did, and so he failed because Fang had made it so.

What? You thought the fact that Henry was unaffected by Isaac's meddling and Emma remembering things was a fluke? Was a bad decision on Isaac's part? A little mistake? As a Writer, Fang has learned that destiny and fate aren't ever left to chance. Every little detail of Henry's journey was laid out and planned from the beginning and beyond. Isaac's defeat was destined from the start, as were all those who oppose the protagonists of this story.

But she had limited time here. The sooner she got out of this story, the better. " _Reality can only be bent so far before it snaps,_ " Her master had once told her. " _Reality can only be snapped and fixed so many times before the scars left do permanent damage. It is our job to fix the scars and rifts, not to make them worse._ "

She'd go and reprimand Isaac for his crimes later. Though now that he was no longer an Author, she supposed that he was now out of her jurisdiction, and only the  _new_  Author would be under watch. She'd have to ask her master about it later. For now, her task was the most important thing and took first priority.

"Regina," She called.

The woman looked over before smiling and walking to Fang, Henry in tow.

"Fang, I see you're doing well. What are you doing in town?"

"I need to look into your vault, if it's not too much trouble, but I'll need you to help dismantle the wards you have."

"Sure, no problem."

"Who are you?" Henry asked.

"This is Fang, Henry," Regina said. "You know her, right?"

"No. What are you talking about, Mom? Do you mean I knew her when I was too young to remember or something?"

"No, you were old enough. She came over and looked after you all the time while I had work, you know, before the first curse was broken and all."

"Well I don't remember her. I don't know her."

Fang raised an eyebrow.

"You wouldn't happen to be the Author that replaced Isaac, would you? I'd heard that he was…fired, but I have yet to gain information on his successor, as it has happened so recently."

"Yeah, I'm…sort of, the Author."

She studied him, putting her hand to her chin in thought and resting her elbow on her arm across her torso.

"You broke your pen, didn't you?"

He looked down.

"Uh, yeah."

"Interesting. I hope you don't come to regret that decision."

"No one should have the kind of power that pen gives you. Look what happened with Isaac. That power is too tempting for people, and the risk of it falling into the wrong hands in the future is too high. I had to destroy it."

"Wise beyond your years, young man. However, there are laws in place, and people who look out for those that seek to disrupt balance and put their own twisted versions of reality in place, such as what Isaac's actions had wrought. The world still spins, does it not? If you thought there was only one Author in the world, you will be displeased to hear there are many others, many more pens to be passed down along with the title and power of an Author."

"You're an Author?"

"No. I am one of those that look over Authors and keep them in check. Isaac failed in his attempt at re-writing this reality, did he not?"

"That was because of us-"

" _Me_  stopping him," She finished. "There is no such thing as a coincidence in this world. The luck that gave rise to your victory was not chance. I made sure Isaac was brought down, and you were merely the in-between that I used to do so."

Henry's face went through a multitude of emotions, from shock and denial, to consideration and then cautious curiosity.

"What are you then? If not an Author."

"I'm what you'd call a "Writer." Not an original name, however, neither is "Author," so don't be one to judge."

"Are you here to punish Isaac?"

"No, I'm not under orders to do so yet. I'd have to check in about what to do with him, or quite possibly someone else was sent in order to do so instead."

"Then why are you here?"

"I'm looking for something. Which reminds me that I should go soon. Now that Regina is here, I can check her vault for it."

Henry looked to his mom, only to find her frozen in place. He looked around the diner and found that everyone was frozen. No one had witnessed the exchange between the two, ever since Fang had first raised her eyebrow at Henry.

Fang raised her hand for dramatic effect, and then snapped. Suddenly the world burst to life again, voices continuing, conversations uninterrupted, people walking around, eating, milling about their business without a second thought. And most certainly without knowledge of the conversation that had happened between the Author and the Writer.

"Let's get to the vault," Regina said without a care in the world.

"Wait, what are you looking for in Mom's vault?" Henry asked.

"Oh, just a little trinket that was stolen from me," Fang said. She patted his head. "Nothing you need to worry about, sweetheart." She canceled her order from Granny and walked to the door with Regina.

"Wait! Mom, don't just listen to her! She's manipulating you!"

"Henry, what has gotten into you?" Regina scolded. "She's our friend. I'm sorry, Fang. I guess it  _has_  been a while since you've been in town. Come on. You two can catch up on the way there."

"Mom, wait!"

But Henry's pleas did nothing to stop Regina and Fang from leaving, and he had no choice but to follow them until he could find a way to convince his mother that Fang wasn't who she said she was.

"Well, if we're starting over, let me introduce myself," Fang said, a smug smile on her face at Henry's useless attempts at fighting her influence. "Rei Fang of the Yun clan from the Village of Paddra, Thirteenth Oracle to the Utakata line. But just call me Fang. Nice to meet you, Henry Mills."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place after everyone was returned to Storybrooke from Isaac's fake world, by the way. Imagine that the whole (spoilers, but if you're reading this, I assume you watch Once Upon a Time, right?) "Emma's the new Dark One" thing doesn't happen yet and Rumple is still in his dying state but has a bit more time.


	2. What She Seeks

Regina held her hands out as they glowed, undoing any enchantments, wards, and traps she'd placed on her vault. When she was done, Fang walked to the doors and opened them with ease.

"Thank you, Regina," She said. "You can go back to whatever you were doing."

"Right," She said, as though all they'd done was met up for coffee and they had to get back to work.

"Wait, Mom…!" Henry continued to protest, but at this point it was futile and he knew he wouldn't be able to convince his mom of anything wrong. "Uh, can I stay with Fang? You know, continue catching up with her?"

"If that's okay with her."

"It's fine, Regina," Fang said. "It'd be nice to catch up."

"Okay then. I'll see you later."

Regina walked off, and Henry hurried after Fang into his mother's vault. She pushed the tomb of Henry - Regina's father, that is - to the side and walked down the staircase. Henry followed her with reluctance, realizing that he didn't have much to defend himself with if Fang found what she was looking for and unleashed some kind of monster onto him.

Fang went around casually, humming a tune as she searched without a care in the world.

"What exactly are you after?" Henry asked.

"A trinket, like I said," She responded, pulling a small scroll out of one of the shelves before slipping it back in place.

"But what kind of trinket? What does it do?"

"Releases a friend of mine."

"A friend?"

He couldn't tell if there was a hint of malice in her voice or not, whether this "friend" was hostile or not. She didn't seem threatened by his questions, no careful tone. She spoke like she would if Henry was her annoying best friend that was asking her whether she had a crush on someone or not - she didn't flat out say it and danced around the subject, yet still managed to keep a perky and unaffected face.

"Yes, a friend. Are you deaf?"

"What does this friend do? Is he powerful?"

"Yes, very powerful," She said, looking through a cylinder that might've been some kind of telescope or pipe. "As for what he does, he brings stuff to life."

"As in…revives the dead?"

"If he wants, sure."

"Why would you want to free him?"

"He was locked up under horrible circumstances. Wrongfully imprisoned. I want him back."

She uncorked a vial and sniffed it before recoiling and quickly slipping the cork into place.

"What exactly are you planning once he's freed?"

"Ah, a villain doesn't reveal their plans before…well, actually, sometimes they do, but the point stands. The information's confidential. Once I've got what I want, we'll leave and you'll not remember anything that's transpired."

"Then what's the harm in telling me?"

"HQ always had eyes on everything that goes on, especially in a world like this. There's someone watching me and everyone else here in this town for their job."

"Well, they…must be getting quite a show."

"Yeah," She muttered half-heartedly while reading a scroll. "It's not much different from your storybook, Henry. Somewhere out there, in another dimension or whatever you want to call it, your lives are documented in a book or movie or TV show. Call it breaking the forth wall or whatnot, but it's true. You guys make an interesting drama show. There are separate people out there that watch over field agents like me to make sure we don't go rogue and do our jobs right, and give us some info from HQ if we're stumped on what to do."

"Doesn't that make you feel…I don't know. Violated?"

"Not like someone's stalking me or anything, and our agents all agreed to things willingly. As for if you're asking whether I like having my every move watched, I really don't mind. We're all family, and no one's gonna judge me for if I make some kind of embarrassing mistake or something."

"What about privacy?"

"It's not like I work 24/7, Henry. I have privacy, and it's not like I'm doing anything embarrassing on the job. Even if I, for some reason, do, then no one watching judges me like a bunch of gossiping teenagers."

"It still doesn't sound…right."

"You do you, Henry. You're not a Writer, and I agreed to all this. I mean, imagine if one of our kind went rogue and tried to change the world to their needs like Isaac did. We Writers have more power than Authors, and we could make things foolproof if we're smart enough and plan stuff out, being a real pain in the neck to others of our kind if they're powerful enough. We don't want that happening, do we? We try to make sure that nothing like that occurs."

"So, you're a good guy?"

"Eye of the beholder, Henry. My intentions could be called pure from one angle, but to another, they are pure evil, not good. In the end, everything's gray. This isn't a world of black and whites. You'd best learn that quickly, if you want to be an Author. Now then."

She snapped her fingers casually.

"Then what's the harm in telling me?" Henry asked again, the last minute or so of his life erased.

"I'm not an idiot," She said simply, before pulling out a book and smiling. "Well, that's good enough for me."

Henry panicked. What was he supposed to do if he couldn't stop her and she had what she wanted? If she could revive the dead…who knows who she could bring back? And what if they were under her control when she revived them? There were so many bad people that he and his friends and family have had to work so hard to defeat, and if they were revived, possibly all at once…that wouldn't be good.

"Oh, wipe that look off your face, Henry. I haven't gotten all I need yet."

She closed the book and stuck it into her cross-body bag before walking out of the vault.

"Hey, wait!"

He hurried out and up the stairs before Fang pushed the tomb back into place behind him. He was confused. Did she plan to trap him down there, or did she actually just let him come back up?

"Not gonna kill off a boy as important as you," She said, as though reading his thoughts. She ruffled his hair, as though he was her son, and he quickly backed away, trying to fix it.

"Why are you doing this?"

"What do you mean? I only want to be reunited with a comrade."

It was hard to tell whether she was being sarcastic or not. Her smile and confidence said she was obviously doing something that wasn't good, something vexatious and/or malicious, and she wasn't afraid of someone getting in her way. With her ability to mess with people's minds and memories, it was understandable that not a lot could stop her.

"Is that all?"

"Yes, Henry. Now, you can come with me if you want as I continue my search, if it makes you feel any better."

Henry didn't know if he could trust her, but what options did he have left? If she wanted, she could probably turn all his friends and family against him in an instant, and there'd be nothing he could do about it. She'd barely have to lift a finger and all the people he knew would stop him from doing anything against her. He'd never seen someone as powerful as her. Everyone always had something that limits them, some kind of holes in their plan that could be exploited, but so far, Henry couldn't see anything, and she didn't seem to be nervous about him finding something either, if she was inviting him to tag along.

So he followed her back into town, trying frantically to come up with something based on what he knew about her, but coming up blank.

"Where are we going now?" Henry asked. "What else could you need?"

"I still need that trinket I told you about. The book was just a surprise. I planned to look for it later, but it seems I have it now. Good luck, I suppose."

"I thought you said there was no such thing as luck because of your ability."

"I can't control every little thing at a time. If I did, that much information would make me either go insane or kill me. There are an infinite amount of tiny factors that go into life. Every little molecule in the world has the opportunity to change and be shifted. If just one molecule could be moved just slightly out of place, then a whole new scenario is played out. You follow?"

"I think so."

"Someone like me, a Writer in general, can change bigger events, especially ones that have big impacts on one's life, and only truly skilled ones can handle smaller events too that will have little effect on the bigger picture. However, when it comes to the lives of ourselves, Writers, our lives are our own. Sometimes we're using our abilities, sometimes we're not, and we just let life take us where it takes us. I suppose you could say that there's someone else out there writing or watching some show about me, a Writer, being in existence. And maybe there's someone else writing about that someone writing about me. That can go on for an infinite amount of times. What we believe to be reality may just be a dream to someone else. We may believe that we are the top tier, the people who live in a world where they are in control and no one's writing about them, their will is their own, but you can never know, right?"

"That sounds…depressing."

"Maybe. But that's only if you choose to perceive it that way. I just live my life, believing that I'm the one in control, that maybe my actions  _are_  my own, that there's no one writing out my story. I do what I want. And I'm gonna find my trinket. I know I will, no matter what anyone says."

"This trinket…how exactly does that book fit in?"

"It helps me activate the thing, sweetheart."

"And…and what happens when you release this friend of yours?"

"Who can really say? Anything can happen, right?"

Still without a clear answer, Fang stopped in front of a building. A familiar pawn shop, to be precise.

"Gold has what you're looking for?" Henry asked.

"He has what 95% of what the magical world is looking for," She argued. "Is it really a surprise that he stole a trinket from me?"

Thinking about it, Henry admitted that Gold did tend to have a lot of things that he'd taken from people over the years as the Dark One, a large number of things that the rest of the people in Storybrooke sometimes needed or lost, and therefore it wasn't a surprise that he might have something of hers.

"You stay out here," Fang ordered.

"What? Why?"

"Can't tell. Take the Writer's word for it, you're staying out here whether you like it or not."

Before Henry could protest, she slipped into the shop before he could take a step forward and shut the door behind her. He looked past the blinds in the door window to see her walk into the back room before he lost sight of her.


	3. Dying Darkness

Fang headed to the back of the shop, where she found Rumpelstiltskin, or "Mr. Gold," and Belle. The moment Belle saw her, she stood from Gold and walked towards her, as though she was protecting him and making sure no one came close.

"I'm sorry, but we're cl-"

Fang waved her hand and interrupted Belle, freezing her as though someone had pressed pause on the TV.

"Don't hurt her," The Dark One threatened as best he could in his weakened state.

"She's fine. I wouldn't hurt her, I just froze her in time."

The female Writer walked over to the dying man.

"You're looking healthy," She said sarcastically.

"Gee, thanks. Who are you and what do you want?"

"I'm Fang, and I'm looking for something you picked up from a wizard."

"I've picked up a lot of things over the years. You're gonna have to be a bit more specific."

"A charm, a necklace with a tear-drop-shaped gem and gold chain and clasp."

Gold sighed in annoyance. Fang knew that, had he been in a better state, he would've usually kept his cool and barely reacted, he would've been more condescending about it, but right now, he seemed genuinely annoyed and impatient.

"Once again, a little more specific, please."

"It contains the power of an Illustrator."

That got his attention.

"You're a Writer," He realized.

"You know of us then."

"Not much, most likely because your kind keeps it that way. I heard the tale from a man who tried to "Slay the Dark One and become a hero" and all that crap. Came to me able to draw without a canvas with incredible speed, and make his creations come to life. Of course, he didn't know what he was up against, and being able to summon things isn't good enough against magic like mine. He boasted about the power of an Illustrator, which, at the time, I thought was a bunch of shit. Talked about the Writers, who have the ability to write their own stories, and make them come true, and the Illustrators by their side who not only make the  _stories_ , but physical objects as well. Said he got the better half of the deal."

"Well, he was wrong about that. When put separate, a Writer is a lot more powerful than an Illustrator. Both are formidable, of course, but if creative enough, a Writer can get out of any situation, while an Illustrator would have a lot more trouble."

"Clearly, as I beat the man within five minutes."

"Slow for you."

"The charm or whatever did offer  _some_  protection. Just not enough."

"Well that guy wasn't born and trained an Illustrator. If he were a real one, then you wouldn't have stood a chance."

"Whatever you say," He said sarcastically. "Anyway, I took the charm and tried to use it, but it apparently only worked for the man that created it and captured that Illustrator. I wanted to create a magic bean, and worked furiously with the charm, but eventually had to give up. Now, if I'm understanding this right, you must be that Illustrator's respective Writer."

"Yes, and I want my partner back before someone either uses his power wrongly or the board chews me out for losing him to a lowly wizard. Now, are we gonna do this the easy way, or are you going to try and get me to make a deal? You're dying Dark One, and soon the darkness contained within you will break free. I'd wager you only have a day or so at most left. A few days if you have a lot of willpower. I can't do anything about your dying state, and I'd never want to do something with my powers like bring your son back or whatnot or else I'd be killed for misusing my abilities. You're in no shape to start asking for deals, so just give the charm to me and let's get on with life."

He chucked weakly at her bluntness.

"I don't have the charm here in the shop. When I gave magic back to Storybrooke, the charm came to life again, but it still wasn't any use to me. Long story short, I threw it in the well outside the town in frustration when trying to use it again. It's probably still there, as no one's stupid enough to jump down a well just to get that thing that can't be used, and if someone fell down the well by accident or stupidly thought they  _could_  utilize it, it's not like they can use the charm to save themselves if even I can't crack the enchantment on it."

"Well, I'll tell any corpses down there that you said hello, and that they were idiots for falling down a well."

She poked him in the chest before moving to leave.

"I've made it so that you might stay alive until I find what I'm looking for. At this rate, it might give you a couple more days. I wasn't one for making deals, but I do believe in repaying my debts as soon as possible."

"Your generosity overwhelms me," He said rolling his eyes. "A few more days of pain? Great. Not to mention that now that I've given you the location of the charm, your little spell is probably gonna end me sooner than later."

"Never know, Rumpelstiltskin. Even Writers can get taken by surprise."

She waved her hand as she left and Belle suddenly unfroze.

"-osed," She finished before looking at the exiting Fang in confusion. "What happened?" She asked Gold. He sighed.

"Leave me to deal with her too, huh?"


	4. Alek and Aloja

"Got what I needed," Fang reported as she closed the door to the shop.

"Why couldn't I come in again?" Henry asked, a hint of annoyance in his words.

"Plot convenience. Gold knows a few things that you can't, at least not for a while."

He sighed, unsatisfied with the answer, but knowing that it was the best one he was gonna get out of her.

"Okay then, what did you get?"

"Information. A location. The famous well outside this town, where Gold first released magic into this town after the first curse was broken, where a portal was made for your mom and grandma, etc. That place is where I'm going. Still wanna tag along?"

"Yeah. Not letting you out of my sight."

The pair headed back to the outskirts of town, this time heading for the old well, which wasn't very far from the pawn shop, at least.

"So, uh…" Henry began as they walked, hoping to make conversation. "What's it like? Being able to just will things to happen?"

"As easy as it is for you to speak, kid. Will things to happen and they do. If you're doing something big and fancy, you might feel a tug or a bit of fatigue, but once you're trained up, it becomes second nature. You always have to know what you want though, or it could transform into one of those genie things where you get what you wish for, but not in the way you wanted it. And you have to be careful that not everything you imagine is put into existence, because minds wander, and not everything is what you want to happen or see in real life."

"Could you tell me exactly what the difference between an Author and a Writer is? I mean, could I one day learn to do what you do? Is Writer like the evolved form of an Author, like Pokémon?"

"No. You have to be born into the right family, born the right person to be a Writer. You're born with the gift, not given it by the pen or anything. We're born knowing we're Writers from the moment we're born, mostly because if we don't know how to use our powers, bad things could happen without us meaning them too."

"You said you were an Oracle, right? Thirteenth Oracle of the something something? Does that mean you can see the future with your Writer powers?"

"Oracles hold a lot of purposes, but yes, if I try hard enough, I can see the future. Not constantly, and it does wear me out, but yes. I only do it under certain circumstances though, so don't think I'm just going around predicting your every action or something."

"Must be cool. Seeing the future."

"Not really. When you know what's going to happen, things are set in stone, no matter what you try and do to stop them. Surely you understand the logic. When you know something about the future, there's nothing that can change it, even if you don't know how long the road to that future is and what twists and turns lie on it. I prefer to remain in the dark, walk the path on my own, and then it seems more like I'm in control, and my path could go in any direction I choose."

The boy thought over her words.

"What if you  _do_  end up changing something?"

"That's what we Writer's are there for. We make sure things happen the right way. Oracles take oaths that say we can't do anything to change the futures we see, or else that  _can_  and most likely  _will_  condemn many others to a worse fate instead. We can't be selfish, and we have to see the bigger picture. It's a hard job, kid. Authors? You don't write the tales, you're not supposed to anyway. Isaac was able to re-write reality to his needs, but that's not what Authors are  _supposed_  to do. You're just supposed to document stories, set them in stone so that they don't fluctuate. Think of it like you're the force that keeps the past in the past, solidifies things into existence once they've happened. We Writers are just there to make sure you don't take advantage of that power."

"And who makes sure you don't take advantage of  _your_  power?"

" _"Who guards the guardians?"_  Something like that? We do. We look after each other and try to raise each and every one of our people with good and understanding hearts, people that know to use their power wisely."

"And when someone doesn't use their power wisely? No one's perfect, not even you guys, right? There's always  _someone_  that goes against even the most perfect group of people."

Fang was silent, staring ahead in a daze. That made Henry feel on edge. He was just beginning to think that Fang might not be such a bad person, but if she couldn't answer what happens when someone goes rogue…did that mean  _she_  was a rogue? If she was, that couldn't mean anything good for her presence in Storybrooke, could it?

Suddenly a blur sped past between the two of them, both staggering back in surprise.

Fang's eyes widened and she gritted her teeth as she checked her bag. Letting a string of curses escape in a foreign language, she looked to the direction of where the blur had headed.

In a tree, two boys were sitting, one with blonde hair swinging his legs in a carefree way and twirling a pen in his hand. The other boy with black hair held the book that Fang had just recently retrieved and put in her bag.

" _Aloja!_ " Fang growled, stepping forward with her fist clenched. "Alek, give that back! You have no right to be interfering with my affairs!"

" _You_  have no right to be using something like this," The boy with the book said, flipping through the pages. "You shouldn't even be here in the first place, Fang. You need to come back and just accept what happened. He'll be replaced."

"Shut it! I just need a little more time! I'm almost there! I'm not giving up on him just like that."

The boy with the book grunted in frustration.

"Would you stop being so stubborn?! He's just you're partner!"

" _You_  stop being so stubborn, Alek! You never liked him anyway. Of  _course_  you'd be saying for me to just give up! I'm not giving up on a friend just because he's replaceable!"

"Rules, Fang! You're gonna be considered a deserter if you don't come back with us now!"

"I…I just need a  _little_  more time to-"

"You either come or not, Fang! Don't give up your entire career for this! If you're branded a deserter, we  _will_ bring you in, even if it means using force! You'll be stripped of your rank and power and memories and…and if you keep resisting-"

"I  _know_  Alek! But you're not gonna convince me. I'm not coming back unless it's with my partner!"

"If you decline now, even if you  _do_  return with him, you'll still be-"

"I don't  _care!_  My answer is  _NO_ , Alek! Understand?! EN. OH."

He growled in anger.

"Fine, be stubborn! Aloja!"

The blonde haired boy moved his pen as though he was drawing something in the air, but actual ink began to come out and stayed in place where he drew. His hands moved with lightning speed, his drawing becoming a 3D image of a tiger before it gained color and then solidified into a real tiger. It fell from the air where it had been drawn before slowly advancing on the Writer, and consequently, Henry.

"What do we do?" Henry asked.

"It won't harm you, Henry," Fang said. "They wouldn't dare kill an Author without orders. If they did, they'd be reprimanded."

Henry was still working to process all that he'd just heard. These two people were Alek and Aloja, people who apparently knew Fang but didn't get along with her. They were sent to bring Fang in, and she was some kind of outcast. She was going after a friend of hers, her partner, who she doesn't want to abandon despite the fact that he could be "replaced."  _That_  was the person she was looking to release with some object. If she didn't come back without him, then she'd be fired. And - wait a second.

"You get orders to  _kill_  Authors, sometimes?"

"Not  _all_  the time. That's just under extreme circumstances. The point is, they'd not kill an Author unless under said extreme circumstances, and therefore, they're gonna avoid harming you at all costs. Meaning, you can run right now, Henry."

"But…you…Are you a good guy or not?"

"What?!" She shouted over the roaring tiger, holding her arms out and seemingly keeping the tiger from advancing.

"What do you plan to do once you get your partner back?!"

"Go home! Or at least, send  _him_  home and hope that I don't get fired, which is pretty unlikely."

"You won't harm anyone in Storybrooke?"

"Not unless they aren't from Storybrooke, no."

The tiger lunged forward, but Fang jumped to the side like a bull fighter to dodge.

"Henry, get out of here now! This isn't anything you need to get caught in!"

"But…I can't just leave you here!"

"I'll be fine!"

Just as she says that, the tiger pounced on her and managed to pin her down.

"Fang!"

"Henry…stop being…stubborn and…just go!"

She pushed against the tiger's front paws that were pinning her arms. The tiger had no intention of killing her if it didn't have to, Fang knew. Alek and Aloja needed to bring her in alive, and killing a fellow Writer was even worse than killing an Author without reason. Besides, Alek and Aloja always had a soft side, and would also try to avoid even scratching her. All they needed to do was pin her down long enough for Alek to put a power-nullifying collar on her or for Aloja to draw a power-nullifying symbol on her. But Fang was the best of her class, and even two against one, she could handle her own.

She made her strength grow before managing to toss the tiger away. She stood quickly and held her hand out at the tiger. The air seemed to vibrate and the tiger roared in protest before shimmering and dissolving into nothing but ink that dissolved into black smoke and blown away in a breeze.

Fang panted at the effort, having already been overworking herself recently, but turned to the two boys in the tree. Alek and Aloja stood before jumping away, hopping on the three branches with blinding speed, basically disappearing between each branch.

Fang concentrated on her power, and felt as Alek resisted her in a battle of wills to see who would determine the outcome of the battle.

They won't escape her.

They'll escape her.

They won't escape.

They will escape.

They won't.

They will.

Won't

Will.

Won't.  
Will.  
Won't.  
Will.  
Won't.  
Will.  
WON'T!

Will.

Fang gasped, letting out the breath she didn't realize she was holding, before spots danced across her vision and she stumbled, falling to her knees.

 _Why were they fleeing?_  She wondered. They could've easily taken her in while she was in this state, weakened not only from her overuse of her power, but also from her lack of a partner making her ever weaker. Without her Illustrator by her side, Fang's abilities would be limited, not just because her Illustrator had different capabilities than her - and diversity was good for fighters so that one doesn't become predictable - but because their actual power was only at its peak when the two were together.

"Fang!" Henry called, hurrying over to her. "Are you okay?"

She nodded weakly, taking deep breaths.

"Who were those guys?"

"Black hair was Alek, a Writer, and blondie was Aloja, his Illustrator. Colleagues of mine. Sort of."

"Illustrator?"

"In return for being more powerful than you Authors, we of the higher class are split into two categories - Writers and Illustrators. Writers do the words, Illustrators do the pictures and physical beings. Both are powerful in their own way, and extremely dangerous when together. Authors have the power to make their own illustrations along with their writing, but we Writers can't do that. We mostly have to rely on the things we imagine in our heads. Illustrators are much better artists than us, and they can make any picture to describe what we write about and vice versa. We Writers are able to take any image and put it into words, and as they say: "A picture is worth a thousand words." We can pick the right words for their images, and can make those thousand words with barely any effort."

"So…the guy you want to find…he's  _your_  Illustrator, isn't he?"

She nodded.

"You're risking your job, your powers, your  _life_ , just to save him?"

She nodded once more.

"Then I guess that answers my question."

She looked to him in confusion.

"You're a good guy, all right."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to keep these chapters close to or under 2,000 words, but if you're okay with longer chapters, dear readers, tell me in reviews! Sorry if there's a lot of fluff. I tend to ramble on about things when it may or may not be necessary.
> 
> P.S. If anyone knows where the names Alek and Aloja come from (without searching it up, cheaters) then you are my new best friend(s). No copyright intended, I swear, but they were cool names.


	5. Operation

"We should come up with a name for our quest," Henry suggested as he and Fang ate at Granny's diner.

Henry had taken Fang back into town and over to Granny's diner so that she could recharge on her energy.

" _Our_  quest?"

"Yeah. You invited me to come along, and so I will. I wanna help you get your friend back, and hopefully keep you from getting punished just for wanting to save him. What happened to him anyway?"

"We were out on an assignment, training a new Illustrator, when we met this wizard. He seemed to have a temporary resistance to our abilities, and managed to capture my partner in this gem he had. After that, he began to use my partner's power for himself. Because I still had an Illustrator by my side, even if they were an amateur, we managed to escape capture as well. If that wizard had caught both a Writer  _and_  an Illustrator, the power he would have had would've been immeasurable. It was odd, as though he'd been prepared and knew all about us. No mere wizard should've been able to counteract the power of us Creators."

"Creators?"

"The general term for Writers and Illustrators. Like the words "boy" and "girl" are "genders." That sort of thing. Anyway, apparently Rumpelstiltskin defeated this wizard long ago and liberated the stone in which my colleague is currently contained within. He attempted to use it to find a way to his son, but the wizard had made it so that only  _he_  could use the power, and even old Rumpel couldn't crack it. After the Evil Queen -  _Regina's_  - curse, it was brought to this town along with all of Rumpel's odd and fancy collector's items he's acquired over the years. According to him, he threw it in the well in anger when it still didn't work for him."

"Which was where we were headed."

"Yes."

"Who were Alek and Aloja? How do you know each other?"

"We work in the same division and we're from the same village. We've been friends for ages. I know Alek's just looking out for me, but he could be less of a jerk about it. He's always been trying to outdo me in the Writer category, and he's always arguing with my Illustrator. Aloja is a nice guy, if a bit quiet sometimes. He's from our village too, and he, Alek and I have known each other since childhood. We stayed friends throughout our training and work, along with my Illustrator who joined our little group of friends. Alek didn't seem to like him, still doesn't, really. Despite the constant quarrels between Alek and my partner, we're all good friends, but now it's like they don't care about my Illustrator at all. More afraid of stepping out of line than helping a friend."

"We can get my moms to help out, and my grandparents. Everyone in Storybrooke would be willing to help you, and you don't have to control them for that."

"Thanks, Henry, but the less people I get involved with, the better. The only reason you're allowed to be staying with me and I'm telling you all this is because you're an Author. At the moment, I could disappear and they'd never know I was here, but if I bring them into more important events in my life, it'll be harder and harder to wipe everything clean again once I'm gone, and even when I get my Illustrator back, he can't help me with something like this. It's a rule of us Creators, and of you Authors, that we aren't to meddle with the affairs of the worlds we look after, not without certain conditions. That's why an Illustrator without a Writer by their side to warn them of what they can and can't do can be dangerous. My Illustrator once went out on his own, nearly messing something up and getting fired if it weren't for me."

"What's his name? Your Illustrator."

"Ken Sai of the Hui clan from the Village of Yama, Twelfth Oracle to the Mizu line," She recited on auto-pilot. She'd heard him repeat his introductory lines a million times. He'd drilled it into her head, and though it was sometimes annoying, she ended up learning it herself, so she supposed it had been effective. "He goes by Sai."

"What exactly does that title mean?"

"Ken Sai is his name, he's from the Hui clan of the Village of Yama. The villages that we're from are conglomerations of numerous clans. Technically, the short version of his name would actually be Yama Hui Ken Sai, but the thing that I told you was his official greeting, and what his name actually stands for. Within each village, there are varying numbers of lines, thirteen oracles of each gender per line. Alek and I are the Thirteenth Oracles of the Utakata line. Sai is the male Twelfth Oracle of the Mizu line from the Village of Yama. It's not really important for you to understand, so don't be ashamed if it's a bit too complicated for you."

"So Alek is your partner Oracle-wise?"

"Yes. The two of us had hope that we'd be partners, Writer and Illustrator, long ago, but we both ended up Writers. Still, we stayed friends, and Aloja ended up being Alek's Illustrator. Even when Sai joined up, we all remained a tight-knit group. At least until now, I suppose."

She stared at her hamburger, her appetite fading.

"I'm sure he's still your friend," Henry said. "He only wants to make sure you don't get into trouble."

"If he wanted that, he wouldn't have confronted me. After the first encounter, HQ will know that he didn't try his hardest to bring me in. We need to avoid each other until we're able to locate Sai. The less encounters it takes for me to come in willingly, the better the chance that Sai's recovery will make up for my unauthorized leave. Alek should know this, or else he wouldn't have run off when he did. The big question is why he took that book from me. He should want to avoid me until I find Sai. If he was ordered to bring me in, and when he first found me I just  _happened_  to have saved Sai by that point, things would've gone so smoothly. Sometimes I wonder if Alek  _wants_  me to forget about Sai.  _Wants_  me to fail in saving him. He always seemed to hold some kind of grudge against him ever since he became my Illustrator."

"Maybe he's just looking out for you. Like a big brother."

"Sai's a good guy. I wish he'd understand that. Aloja liked Sai, though Aloja likes everyone. He's quiet, but he's like that adorable little brother that you'd do anything for. He must be heartbroken that Alek and I are fighting while Sai is missing. He always hates it when Alek picks a fight with Sai, and he's probably the only reason those two don't tear each other apart."

She picked at the fries in front of her, beginning to get lost in her depressing thoughts.

"Well, what should we call our operation?" Henry asked, changing the subject. "I tend to try and make them after animals."

"Animals, huh?"

She stared out the window in thought, sitting back in the booth they were in and crossing her arms.

"I've never really taken a favorite animal before."

"Mistress?" A small voice asked from beneath the table.

A little boy that couldn't have been older than seven popped out from under the table. The first thing Henry noticed about the child were the black cat ears peaking out of his mop of dark, ebony hair.

"Minx!" Fang exclaimed. "What are you doing here? You're too young to go out on your own. I don't sense anyone with you."

"I snuck out," Minx said quietly, his ears drooping in shame.

Unable to stand seeing Minx so sad, knowing that he was still afraid that she'd scold him for the simplest things, Fang sighed and gently pet his head.

"It's okay, Minxy. I just worry about you."

"Who's this?" Henry asked.

Minx's ears suddenly straightened in surprise at Henry's voice before he slipped under the table once more.

"It's okay, Minx," Fang said. "He's not gonna hurt you. This is Minx, a neko. He's a young Illustrator in training. Remember how I told you that Sai and I were training an Illustrator before he got captured? This was the one."

"I thought all of you guys would be human."

"Oh, heavens no. We have people of all species. Sometimes we have to disguise them as humans in order to stay hidden and less conspicuous, but we're far from all human. Even if we are human, most of us have other qualities as well, such as my Oracle status. Minx, this is Henry, an Author."

Minx slowly peeked his head up from under the table, and Henry saw he had eyes the color of emeralds. Minx's eyes then darted to the food on the table and then to Fang.

"Here, have some fish."

She put a plate of half-eaten fish in front of the small neko. He hesitated for a moment before his small hand darted out and snatched it up. Then, quick as a cat, Minx slipped under the table and ate it quickly.

Fang sighed. Minx was a rescue, a little boy who'd been treated like a slave because of his Illustrator abilities. Though it had been a couple years since Fang and Sai had stumbled upon him and rescued him, he still had a habit of eating as though he was afraid his meal would be taken at any moment. He was shy about asking for things, he was terrified he'd be punished for even the smallest mishaps, and he rarely ever spoke up when he was in pain of some kind, whether it was small discomforts or being sick.

When Minx popped his head up again, he took a napkin and wiped his hands, his claws retracting to normal nails.

"So, you're an Illustrator?" Henry asked.

Minx nodded shyly, sitting close to Fang with his hands in his lap, looking down at them.

"He's the only reason that I wasn't captured by that wizard that took Sai," Fang explained. "The first thing he learned how to create was a fish, and consequently, when he panicked, he drew a multiplying symbol and literally made it rain fish, and live ones at that."

Henry laughed at the image in his head of the sky just raining tons and tons of little fish.

"You laugh now, but it was terrifying. Some of the fish were pretty big, and they kept on jumping around on the ground. I wasn't sure whether I was running from the wizard or the flopping fish falling from the sky."

She managed a weak smile before it seemed to wear off.

"You should get home, Minx. The board won't let you come out again if they find out you ran off without supervision."

"But…I wanna find Master Sai," He said in a cute, small voice.

Fang would've argued, but  _you_  try saying no to that cute little neko pouty face!

"I…suppose having an Illustrator with us might be useful. I can't teach you much since I'm not Sai, but I could try. This might be a good chance for you to gain some experience."

"Yay!" Minx exclaimed happily.

"Well I think we have a name for our operation," Henry declared.

The pair looked to him in confusion.

"Operation Minx."


	6. Alek's Anger and Aloja's Anguish

Aloja watched worriedly as his partner stomped through the woods far outside of the town.

"Ugh, why can't she just…AARGH!"

"Come on, Al, calm down," Aloja tried, knowing that when his Writer got riled up, there was little to be done. Especially when it came to either Fang or Sai.

"Fang's risking being  _fired_ , Lo! You know what that means! She's risking everything…all for stupid Sai!"

Alek kicked a tree as hard as he could. Alek could've usually made it so that the tree was fell down or something else dramatic, but when he was angry, he wasn't really focusing on his powers, therefore the tree got off unscathed and Alek ended up wincing at his hurt foot. He got over the pain quickly, or he was just hiding it, as he stomped off.

"Where are we going?" Aloja asked. Alek had been leading him nowhere in particular, at least as far as he knew.

"We're going to find stupid Sai and get her back to HQ before things get even worse."

"But wouldn't that make us deserters too?"

"We're getting Fang back, and if words aren't enough to convince her, then we can do something else. We're still trying to get her back, just not in such a direct way. We know her whole purpose for abandoning her post and orders is because she's looking for fucking Sai, so we find him and then she'll come back with us."

"What's so wrong with Sai?"

Alek reeled on his partner with his hands clenched into fists.

"I'll tell you what's wrong with him! He just butted into our lives like he owns the place! He…he's basically  _stolen_  Fang from us. It's like she looks at no one but him anymore! He's always acting so perfect and such a great partner and…AARGH!"

Aloja unintentionally flinched, though not from his friend's outburst. He's known Alek has liked Fang ever since they were kids. Once upon a time, Alek was in Sai's position, spending every day with Fang because their positions as the Thirteenth Oracles. For a long time it seemed like they were perfect for each other, just Alek was too embarrassed to admit things and figured that he had all the time in the world to find out how she felt too. Then, they got assigned as Creators by the board, but not respective partners.

Alek was clearly unhappy about it, like if you received your school schedule and found out you weren't in any of your friends' classes, but he knew that there was nothing to be done about it, and it wasn't like it was the end of the world. He still had Aloja, and he still saw Fang pretty often, but when Sai got brought in, and Fang suddenly started bringing him to her meetings with the boys hoping that her new partner could tag along, something in Alek seemed to snap.

He was crushed, Aloja saw. He always challenged Fang to work on their Writer skills just for an excuse to get her full attention on him. Fang was a pretty good Writer, and for better or worse, Alek was driven by anger, by desperation. His happiness, his cheery and perky attitude…everything just all slipped away from him, leaving him angry, but most of all, helpless as the life he'd hoped for was lost right before his eyes.

And it crushed Aloja to know that Alek was being crushed.

"…and now we may lose her all because of him!" Alek finished.

Alek breathed heavily, seemingly out of angry quips to make about Sai (and he had a  _lot_ ).

"Alek, why can't you just…?"

" _Learn to accept Sai and try and move on?_ " " _See how much it hurts me to know you can't get over Fang?_ " " _See how much I-?_ "

No, he couldn't start thinking that way. It wasn't fair to tell Alek to just get over things when his life was basically falling apart for him. He didn't need anymore drama added onto his life, and it's not like…he'd never…

"Here it is," Alek said, thankfully snapping Aloja out of his thoughts. "I think the pendant that has Sai is down there somewhere," He said with a hint of malice still in his voice.

"How do you wanna get it?" Aloja asked. Aloja always looked to Alek for what he wanted made for him. Alek could make anything he wanted happen, but he was limited to whatever pawns were on the board already. It was Aloja's job, as his Illustrator, to give him the pieces he needed to accomplish his goals.

"Send a spider down. Large one that can pick up the pendant. And make sure that it can see in the dark and locate the pendant. And if there's water down there, make sure it can't drown."

Aloja moved his pen summoning it's power easily. His hands went to work, making a spider with a body about the size of a small dog. He barely had to concentrate on what he was drawing, his hands and pen on auto-pilot to make his intended creation.

Once the spider was finished and solidified, it made its way into the well and then down.

While they waited for it to come back with the charm, Aloja saw Alek staring down the well, partially anxious and partially nervous, seemingly unsure of whether he wanted the spider to be successful or not. Hopefully he wasn't influencing the reality of it, or else the charm might end up not being down there just because of his will, and then the chase would begin all over again.

Aloja wasn't a master with words, and was more enticed by an image than the description of it. He couldn't describe things easily, but he could make a painting that described how he felt with a passion. He could never put things into words, he just  _knew_  the things he felt. When it came to Alek, it was the same. He couldn't pin it down with words, but he just  _knew_  there was something within him that hurt.

Alek made up most of his non-Illustrator drawings and paintings, ones he did without bringing them to life, ones he just made for fun or when he had free time. Alek was always brooding, getting lost just staring at nothing. Just by looking at him when he was like that Aloja saw his pain, emptiness, that knot inside him that couldn't ever be unraveled, that slowly ate away at him. Aloja drew Alek when he was like that, because it represented exactly how he himself felt.

His hands unconsciously began documenting his friend looking down into the well in a little pad he had with him. If Alek knew he was being drawn, he never said anything about it, and Aloja was happy since he wouldn't know what he'd do if he wasn't allowed to draw him. Drawing itself was an addiction for an Illustrator, but for Aloja, Alek was more important than water. If he was forbidden to draw Alek, he'd respect his friend's wishes, but he had no doubt that he would die inside. Bad enough that he was never going to…and Aloja was already falling apart inside, but that would make things…just hell.

"There it is," Alek said, though he didn't seem excited. It sounded more like he was about to go to the lottery in the Hunger Games and he already knew he was gonna get chosen.

Aloja checked the spider, and its mouth(?) twitched before it threw up the pendant.

"That is disgusting," Alek commented.

Aloja's spider was dismissed, transforming to ink, evaporating, and disappearing into the wind. Luckily, the pendant seemed to be unmarred by any spider saliva (do giant ink-made spiders have saliva?) and Aloja picked it up without incident.

"Is this it?" He asked, handing it to Alek.

"Not sure," He admitted.

The gem was tear-drop-shaped, the base about the diameter of a quarter. It was dark blue, and seemingly bursting with energy. The chain for the necklace was golden, and if one didn't know any better, it might've looked like something belonging to royalty.

"The power coming from it seems like Sai's," Aloja admitted. "It does feel like a fellow Illustrator. What about you?"

"Feels like him all right. I've had more than enough of the guy for one lifetime."

Alek put the pendant into his bag before pulling out the book that they'd gotten from Fang.

"Now how is this supposed to activate the pendant?"

"How am I supposed to know? You're the Writer."

"This is magic I don't understand. If I don't understand something, I don't have any control over it. It's like reading a book in a dream. Because you don't remember every exact detail about the words in the book, it can be really hard to actually read it. Fang said this helped activate the thing, and if what I'm getting from her is right, the guy that captured Sai put some curse or whatnot on this thing so that it could only be used by him. Not even the Dark One could crack it."

"Then what do we do?"

"Hope that this book has what we need. If I don't know what we're looking for, hoping is all we can do."

"What if we…I don't know…ask Fang for help?"

Alek tensed.

"We can figure this out, Lo. It can't be  _that_  complicated. She'll just slow us down. Let's get back to the TBOP."

Alek began reading the Table of Contents as they walked, flipping to different sections of the book as he tried to find the right information, muttering angry things as he tried to interpret the confusing words, symbols, and spells. Well, he was also muttering angrily as he kept stumbling over tree roots and tripping over his feet since he was trying to read while walk.

Aloja just wanted all of this crap to be over. Not just the whole Fang going after Sai thing, but Alek still liking Fang. He wanted Alek to stop being so sad, so angry. As much as he hated to admit it even to himself, he'd do anything to make Alek feel happy again, like back before they were Creators. Before everything got complicated. He wouldn't take anything back. He doesn't hate Sai or Fang for being who they are. He just wished that things could be simple again, that they could be happy. That  _Alek_  could be happy.

But nothing could ever be that simple. Alek would never care for him, especially not when he had Fang to pine over. And so long as he didn't move on from her, he would suffer, and so too would Aloja.

As he glared angrily at the book in his hands, Alek didn't see the hurt on Aloja's face as he looked to the ground and blinked away tears.


	7. Stupid Me

When the two boys made it to the TBOP (Temporary Base of Operations) - which was basically just a small cave they'd found, Alek still hadn't found anything.

"All I'm getting from this book is that for certain spells, most of the time, only the caster can reverse a certain protection or sealing enchantment. Which is just great since apparently the Dark One defeated this wizard dude or whatever ages ago."

"We could go back and salvage the man. You know, save him from the Dark One or something and in return, get him to give us the pendant and unseal its power."

"But then the charm wouldn't end up where it is for us to find it. Time-travel isn't that simple, and we'd be abusing our powers in the wrong way and be fired, no matter what our reason behind doing so were. Plus, this guy clearly knew what he was doing when he captured Sai. There's a chance he could refuse, and there'd be nothing we could do about it, or he could try and capture us too, putting us in square negative ten. I have no doubt that having this thing must give some resistance to Writer influence, so there's no point in risking the chance that I'd be able to guarantee anything."

"Maybe not you alone, but what if Fang-?"

"The first reason comes into play then. We're not bringing her into this for no reason. She'll see Sai one way or another."

"But better we finish this sooner than later, and asking for her help will speed up the process. Besides, she retrieved that book, and there must be a reason behind it. I'm not sure about you, but there could be some things in there that could help us but we just can't see it. I think it's worth talking to her about it."

"She found the journal in the Evil Queen's vault. I question why it would be there. I mean, you'd think Rumpelstiltskin would've had something like this if it's so powerful. He had the pendant at one point, so why wouldn't he have this book if it could hold the key to undoing the seal?"

"I don't have an answer, but Fang might. I mean, she usually sees things that no one else does."

"We're Oracles. That's the basic definition of us."

"Then you should look a bit deeper into the book. Unless…something's distracting you."

"I'm worrying my head off for my friend's wellbeing. Of  _course_  I'm distracted.

Before Aloja knew it, anger boiled within him. Everything he'd been holding back came flowing out, the dam holding his emotions breaking down and letting him be flooded with anger.

"Why are you so against Fang helping us find Sai?!"

"Because she gets emotional about him, and that's-"

"What? Forbidden?! How is Fang liking someone such a problem?! How is her liking Sai a problem?!"

Alek suddenly snapped to attention, his own restrained anger coming out.

"She doesn't like him!"

"Yeah, and I'm a Writer! You just need to accept the damn fact that she loves someone other than you!"

Without even thinking about it, Alek punched Aloja in the jaw hard. There was no Writer power behind it, only his own pent up anger. In the back of his mind, he knew Aloja was right, but when it was said aloud, it just reminded him of how much it hurt. If he just pretended that maybe things could change, then he could walk through life without breaking down. It was the only way he could keep going, the only way he'd be able to go forward.

He was a Writer. He could make anything happen with enough information and willpower. Yet the one thing that he wanted most, the thing that he'd give everything for, give up all his power for, do absolutely  _anything_  for, was the one thing he couldn't control. The one thing out of his reach. The one thing that he couldn't do anything about. And it was killing him inside that there was nothing to be done, that he'd just have to accept things. How was he supposed to just get over it?

He was being stupid, or at least that's what he told himself. He had to work to remind himself that this was all just him overreacting. Of course it hurt that the girl he liked ended up liking someone else, but did it really hurt this much? Did it ever go away? He'd been trying to deal with those questions ever since Sai came in, ever since his best friend was lost to him. He felt lost. What was he supposed to do when the pain didn't go away?

Aloja held his jaw for a moment, and then suddenly it hit Alek what he'd just done. If the pain from being so confused with his best friend hurt, the realization that he'd just punched his  _other_  best friend hit him like a truck.

"Aloja…"

"You're such an idiot!" He shouted, tears falling from his tightly closed eyes.

"I…I'm sorry. I didn't…I…Aloja, please-"

"You fucking idiot!"

Aloja opened his eyes, filled with both tears and pure rage. He marched up to Alek, and Alek tensed, expecting a punch. Not that he didn't deserve it. He may have been angry, but he shouldn't have taken it out on Aloja. Maybe a punch would help him, snap him out of whatever spiral of pain he was stuck in.

But instead of a punch, Aloja grabbed each of his wrists, shoved him back until he hit the wall behind him, pinning his wrists to the side, before Aloja attacked him with a harsh kiss. Alek gasped in surprise and Aloja took advantage of his open lips to deepen the kiss further, his tongue slipping in and attacking Alek's.

Aloja released his wrists to move his hands to Alek's head, but Alek was too in shock to do anything with his hands anymore. Aloja's actions not only surprised Alek, but the fact that he began to kiss his  _back_  without thinking, as though they'd done this a million times. Their mouths slotted perfectly together, Aloja had such soft lips, his hands were currently gripping his hair almost desperately, and his tongue was currently dominating Alek's, making it hard to think any thoughts whatsoever.

Normally, Aloja was a quiet guy, and this angry and dominant side of him made Alek explode with something, though not the pain that had been destroying him beforehand. It was so much stronger, and though it hurt, it was because it was so amazing that it was overwhelming him.

Alek's hands finally decided to do something, his arms wrapping around Aloja, desperate to keep this feeling within him and never let the blonde go. Aloja was just slightly shorter than Alek, but only by an inch or two, therefore his arms slipped nicely around him.

A moan escaped without warning, and that suddenly seemed to snap Aloja out of it. He shoved Alek back against the rock wall behind him again, stumbling back himself as though Alek had done something wrong. He still looked ticked off, if slightly flustered as though he just realized what had happened.

"Fucking idiot," He muttered, though whether he was still talking about Alek or if he was talking about himself was unclear, even to himself.

Alek was breathing hard, still in shock about Aloja's actions, confused about what was going on now, and trying to comprehend what to do.

"Aloja?" He asked.

Aloja stared at Alek in anger, as though he blamed him for making him kiss him. He grunted - though it was more like screaming in rage - shoving Alek against the wall again before sprinting out of the cave, covering his eyes as he began to sob.

"Aloja, wait!"

" _Stupid Alek, stupid feelings, stupid, STUPID,_ _ **STUPID**_ _ME!_ "

"Aloja!"

But the Illustrator sprinted away blindly as fast as he could, wanting to just escape Alek, escape his feelings, escape everything. It was a miracle that he didn't run into any trees as he sprinted away blindly through the woods, unsure of whether Alek was following behind or not.

He was so angry at himself for doing that. He'd probably just ruined his relationship with Alek completely. He'd never speak to Aloja again, he'd probably request a new partner, he'd either be angry or totally disgusted every time he saw Aloja, and Aloja would be crushed, blaming himself forever for being so foolish that day.

When Aloja tripped and fell to the ground, he stayed down and sobbed into the dirt, wishing he could take it all back, wishing he didn't like Alek that way so that none of this would've happened. He wished he could just like Alek as a best friend, be satisfied with the way things were between them. But his moronic, asinine, rash, absurd, foolish, idiotic heart didn't like making things simple for him. It  _had_  go and ruin his life. Make him lose every good thing he had.


	8. Too Late

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, it is cheesy, dear viewers, and it is a bit of an unexpected tangent from what I had planned. You can leave. I'm not keeping you here. If you're staying with me, tell me - in reviews!

Aloja didn't know how long he'd been laying in the forest. He must've fallen asleep, as he found himself waking you, stiff from the uncomfortable ground. His eyes were dried out from crying, and still sleepy as well.

He briefly wondered if Alek had been searching for him, but then threw that thought away. Of course not. Alek hated him now. He'd ruined their friendship, and now Alek probably didn't want anything to do with Aloja.

The Illustrator didn't sense anything, meaning Alek wasn't within range. Unsure of what to do without his Writer by his side, Aloja slumped next to a tree. He didn't know where he was, and without his Writer, he was in the dark of whether any of his actions would have consequences. Not only was Aloja not a Writer, but he also wasn't an Oracle, and he'd never felt so clueless as to where to go or what to do.

He was just a Summoner, someone who the Thirteenth Oracle never would've saw if it wasn't for his friend and fellow Thirteenth Oracle, Fang. Why she took notice in him, he couldn't be sure. He'd never had the courage to ask. But after that, she would always bring Aloja along when they had free time, allowing Aloja to get to know Alek.

Aloja was astonished when he learned he was an Illustrator alone, but when he became  _Alek's_  Illustrator, he exploded with joy. Unlike Writers, Illustrators aren't born knowing their abilities and raised knowing what they can do. Sometimes they find their ability by chance, drawing something and having it come to life spontaneously, but other times, they have to wait until they reach maturity before they are brought in by the organization.

Aloja got to live his life with Alek and Fang, knowing they were both Oracles and future creators, but not knowing he'd be one too. He was so happy to know that he wouldn't be separated from his friends, and happy to know that his friends had planned to stay his friends even if they moved on without him. At the time, his life couldn't have gotten better.

Now, it couldn't possibly get worse.

"Aloja?"

The blonde jumped back at Alek's voice, seeing him standing right in front of him. When had he gotten there?  _How?_  He was sure Alek hadn't been following him. But Aloja reminded himself that Alek was a Writer. He could've made it so that Aloja had run in a circle coming right back to Alek in his desperate flight. The fact that he was in a forest would've made that easy enough, but Aloja hadn't even been paying attention to where he was going. Alek would've easily made him run in circles with barely a second thought.

"Go away," Aloja demanded weakly, sniffling and wiping his eyes. He stood and turned, trying to hurry off again.

"Hey, wait." Alek grabbed his wrist and held him back. "What's wrong? Do you think I'm mad or something?"

Aloja froze.

"You mean…you're  _not?_ "

"Why would I be? Look, this has to just be a misunderstanding."

Alek put both his hands around the hand he'd grabbed.

"Come on. I promise, I'm not angry, Aloja."

"But, Alek…"

He moved in front of Aloja, gripping his wrist with one hand and putting his other on Aloja's cheek, cupping his face gently.

"Please believe me, Aloja."

Aloja stared at Alek's face in disbelief. This couldn't be real. He was just imagining this. He was really passed out on the forest floor and dreaming. Or maybe his pen made this for him when he wished things were just okay. It was said that things like that could happen sometimes, Illustrators controlling their pens without meaning to and making something happen without even realizing it. Either way, this couldn't be Alek.

"No…no, I…"

He backed away, but Alek's grip on his wrist tightened.

"Aloja-"

"Aloja!"

Aloja jumped, looking behind him to see…Alek? Aloja looked between the boy running up to him and the one gripping his wrist, panicking. The former wasn't an illusion, as the latter was looking at him too. Aloja knew it was too good to be true. This wasn't Alek, it couldn't be.

He pulled his hand, but Alek had a serious grip, and sadly he had Aloja's left wrist in his grasp, his drawing hand. He was working on being ambidextrous - as they recommended that for both Illustrators and Writers back at the academy, but even with his Illustrator powers, he still sucked at drawing with his right hand. He fumbled for his pen, but it was in his bag at his left hip, which was hard to reach when his left hand was restrained.

"Get your hands off him!" Real Alek shouted as he sprinted up. Alek didn't have any weapons on him, as he relied on Aloja to summon anything they needed, so he couldn't exactly shoot his double, and he didn't have anything to throw either. How had he never realized how much he relied on Aloja?

Fake Alek pulled Aloja's wrist and they began running. Aloja stumbled to stay on his feet, knowing that even if he didn't run with his captor, he was still plenty strong enough just to flat out drag him. He only prayed Alek was as fast as his double, but considering that Alek had already been running while Fake Alek had just begun to run, therefore having more stamina, Real Alek's chances were already lowered.

"Aloja!"

"Who are you?" Aloja asked as they ran.

He didn't get an answer, only a smirk. The Fake Alek was barely breaking a sweat while running, and despite Alek's efforts to make himself faster or give himself more stamina, something was wrong. He couldn't do anything, and he might as well have spat in the wind for the good his efforts did. He had never felt so helpless, even when it came to losing Fang. Now, he was gonna lose another friend, but this time, who knew what was in store for him? Worst of all, he could prevent this from happening, he could do something. There was nothing to be done about Fang, but when he was actually capable of changing things yet couldn't, that's what it really meant to feel helpless.

Aloja was worried now why Alek hadn't caught up. Unless this Fake Alek was also a Writer, Alek should've been able to easily do  _something_  to save him. Maybe Alek  _was_  angry at him. Maybe he didn't  _want_  to save Aloja, not that much. Aloja lost his energy at the thought. It didn't seem likely, Alek wasn't like that. Yet still, the thought wouldn't leave Aloja's head. He scolded himself for caring so much about Alek, but his stupid heart once again went against his rational head.

Aloja and his kidnapper reached a cliff. There were posts that suggested a bridge once existed, but it seemed to have collapsed, as there was no longer a way across. It was a pretty long fall, and Aloja definitely didn't want to make that jump and just hope water below would catch him, and the other side was much too far away to just leap across in one bound.

"You, Illustrator," Fake Alek said harshly. "Where is the pendant?"

"The wha-?"

"The gem containing one of your kind! Where is it?"

"It's gone! We found a book to release the person inside!"

Fake Alek cursed under his breath.

"Rumpelstiltskin and the Evil Queen, huh? Fine, then I'll just need to capture another one."

"Aloja!" Real Alek called, causing the Fake Alek to smirk.

"And it seems I'll have another chance to capture a Writer along with you. No neko to save you this time, boys."

He released Aloja's hand to reach into his own bag, and Aloja took the chance to shove Fake Alek away and run towards the voice of the real one. Aloja sprinted as fast as he could into the forest once more, knowing that the Fake Alek wouldn't let him get away easily.

Aloja grabbed his pen from his bag and then began drawing an ink cloud, releasing all the ink he could and shrouding the entire forest within a thirty-foot radius. He could sense his way through the ink easily, and found Real Alek stumbling forward, running into a tree. Under normal circumstances, Aloja would've laughed at him for it (and documented his embarrassed face in his notebook because it was adorable), but right now he sprinted towards Alek as fast as he could.

"Alek!"

"Aloja?"

Alek was basically blinded and couldn't see anything but blackness, so hearing Aloja's voice made his heart jump for joy. He didn't sound like he was in danger, and Alek knew that the ink cloud had to have been his partner's.

When he felt Aloja's body tackle him in a hug, he had never been so happy to have Aloja with him. Alek gripped his friend tightly, wanting to apologize a million times for anything he'd done to make Aloja run away in the first place, and for not being able to reach him when the Fake Alek had taken him.

"Aloja, I-"

"Come on, we need to hurry!" Aloja interrupted, releasing Alek from his hug (making Alek feel cold without his warmth) and grabbing his wrist to drag him off.

"Whoa, wait! Who is that guy?! What does he want?!"

"Us! He's the one that captured Sai in that charm!"

"What?! That explains why I wasn't able to catch you. He has a resistance to our abilities."

"And that means-!"

Before Aloja could say it, the ink cloud began to shift, sucked back in the direction that he'd come from as though a vacuum was sucking it all up. When the edge of the ink cloud passed the two boys, Aloja was dragged along with it, as though the ink cloud was gripping him.

Aloja and Alek each gripped each other's hands tightly by instinct, Alek fumbling to get a grip on the nearest tree trunk. When the rest of the ink cloud was sucked away minus the bit holding onto Aloja, it was revealed that Fake Alek was holding up a charm similar to the one that Sai had been in. The only difference was the gem itself was clear as diamond instead of navy blue.

The charm in Fake Alek's hand seemed to be sucking both of them in, and since it had gotten a lock on Aloja's ink cloud, it consequently had a lock on Aloja as well. Yet that also meant that it still didn't have a lock on Alek, and he could still escape.

"Alek, let go!" Aloja ordered.

"What?! No! Don't you dare say something like that! We're both gonna make it out of this!"

"You need to get to Fang and release Sai, and you can't let this guy get both of us! Whoever he is, if he gets ahold of a Writer and an Illustrator's power, none of us will be able to stop him!"

Alek had never felt so helpless in his life. Losing Fang to someone else seemed trivial compared to the pain in his chest at the thought that he'd have to let Aloja get taken by that bastard.

"I'm sorry…"

"It's okay. I know you'll rescue me."

But that wasn't what he meant, not entirely. He was sorry that he never noticed how Aloja felt, and how he'd never gotten to talk to Aloja about it since all this crap happened afterwards. Aloja had to have felt crushed inside, watching the person he liked going after someone else, ignorant of how you felt. Alek would know. But he also knew how stupid he himself had acted in his jealousy of Sai and his anger at his life. Every time he got angry at Sai or Fang, or both of them, he had reminded Aloja of how Alek would never see him like that. Now that Alek knew, he wanted to apologize a million times. He wanted to make up for it, he didn't want to let Aloja go, especially not now.

He tightened his grip on Aloja's hand in anger, but his grip on the tree wasn't indefinite. He felt his hand slipping from his sweat and the strong force tugging at his Illustrator, and he knew that he either had to let Aloja go or risk that wizard have the power of  _two_  Illustrators (because Sai's pendant was still in Alek's bag) and a Writer. Despite knowing that, he still didn't want to let go.

"Alek, please," Aloja begged. He didn't want Alek to get taken down with him, and if he knew his friend, no matter how much he now hated Aloja, he'd still stop at nothing to save him. If he was willing to save Sai before - even if he  _said_  it was just to get Fang to come back - despite everything, he was still a good person, and he wouldn't just leave someone behind.

Not to mention that this wizard dude wouldn't use Aloja's power for good, if first impressions were anything to go by. The power of an Illustrator was dangerous, especially without a Writer there to keep it in check, and Alek and Fang together would be able to convince the board to allow them to take action and stop this guy. But that meant Alek had to get away from this encounter.

So, using all the strength he had, he grabbed Alek's forearm and then pulled himself up to Alek's torso. He got a grip on the dark-haired boy's shoulders, finally prompting him to release Aloja's hand in favor of getting a better grip on his waist instead. But Alek's hand was losing his grip on the tree. They had seconds left.

"I'm sorry," He said.

"Don't you dare apologize!" Alek snapped. Aloja ignored his friend, continuing.

"You need to run. Once this guy traps me, you'll have a few moments at best to escape."

"Shut up, Aloja! I'm not letting him take you!"

"I'll do my best to guide you from within the pendant. Can't be much harder than summoning, can it?"

Aloja held on with one arm and dug through his bag, finding what he needed and preparing himself.

"Aloja, stop saying that! Come on, we can both make it-"

"The guy's gem has a lock on me, there's no way for me to escape it now. That guy can just walk right up to me and absorb my power manually, even if we did hold on."

Alek's grip tightened around Aloja's waist.

"I'm not…I can't just…I'm sorry."

Knowing what he needed to do, Aloja leaned in and captured his Writer's lips with his own. Alek stiffened for a moment in surprise, but then Alek's grip relaxed slightly as he melted into it. Just what Aloja needed.

He shoved his friend away, causing him to lose his grip because he was unprepared. Alek scrambled to grab any part of Aloja he could, but with only one hand and less than a millisecond to react, all he got was a slight brush of his fingers against his Illustrator's arm before he was out of reach in an instant.

"Aloja!"

All at once, there was a bright flash of light, the winds that had been drawing the two in stopped, and then a book smacked into Alek's head. When Alek gathered his bearings again, he saw that the book was Aloja's notepad.

Suddenly, it dawned on him that he'd lost his friend. He was in the pendant now. Alek had failed in protecting him. Alek had failed to protect not only his friend, but one of his people, his family, (and his maybe-boyfriend, but this was no time to be thinking about that).

To an Oracle, not being able to protect your people might as well have been a crime worthy of death. Though that's not how things worked, and the people would never judge him that way, that's how it felt to an Oracle.

Now, Alek had lost one of the most important people in his life, and he had only just realized how important he really was a moment too late.

Gripping his Illustrator's notebook, he sprinted away with all his anger behind him. He needed to get Aloja back, he needed to apologize for being so stupid. He still felt Aloja's arm slipping out of his grasp, he still felt the kiss he used to get Alek to let his guard down.

You never realize how much you need something until it's gone, and right now, Alek needed to have his partner by his side again more than ever before.

Alek sprinted through the forest, not knowing or caring if anything was following him. He didn't feel the cuts of branches that scraped him as he ran past; he didn't feel the pain of whenever he tripped over a tree root and practically broke his foot each time since he was running so fast; he didn't feel when the ground trembled at something large running after him.

When said something inevitably caught up, he felt a large amount of energy leaving him as a barrier went up to protect him subconsciously. He barely felt it. He just kept running, feeling the burning pain surge through him as his body screamed for him to stop and rest. He told it to shut the fuck up as he ran faster.

And he didn't try to stop the stream of tears and sobs that escaped him as he rushed back to the town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you it was cheesy, but it was also sweet too. If Once Upon a Time can get away with all their drama, this can't be that far out of the ballpark, right?
> 
> Reeevieeew!


	9. A Verboten Threat

"So, what's the next step in Operation Minx?" Henry asked as the three of them left Granny's diner.

Fang, holding Minx's hand as they walked, sighed and brushed her hand through her hair with her free hand.

"Well, I suppose we first go and look for the pendant containing Sai that Rumpelstiltskin threw away. After that, we'll have to look for Alek and Aloja and retrieve that book from them, which could be easy or hard depending on the situation. I still wonder why they took the book in the first place. They should know that the faster I release Sai, the better."

"So Master Sai's in a pendant?" Minx asked.

"Yes, and we're going to have to release him with a spell. Now that I think about it, maybe having an Illustrator around on our side will actually help us immensely."

"How so?" Henry asked.

"Inside the book that Alek took is a spell, consisting of a series of magic symbols that have to be drawn and then enacted. Having an Illustrator will make the process ten times easier, as Illustrators specialize in spells drawn from symbols. Minx has been doing this all his life, and I'm sure he can free Sai."

"Anything for Master!" Minx said resolutely.

"Why does he call you Master and Mistress?" Henry asked.

"It's an old habit from the people we found him with. Despite our attempts at having him call us by name, he says he isn't comfortable doing so. It's like growing up calling your mother, well, "mother," or "mom," etc., but then having to actually call them by name. It just feels weird and not right. Anyway, you and Minx are about the same age."

"Really?"

"Yeah. He looks like he's seven or eight, but really, he's at least twice that. And, he uses his tail to draw his creations. I, personally, find that adorable."

Minx's tail waved as he walked, seeming to have a mind of its own and reflecting Minx's emotions. At Fang's comment, Minx's tail froze and his ears perked up in surprise, before his tail then curled to his side and his ears fell in embarrassment.

"Oh…uh…thank you…" He said quietly. He wasn't used to compliments, and he was still learning how to react to them. Sometimes he was confused on when he should say thank you, and most times he was too flustered to say anything. It was  _so_  adorable.

Fang scooped up the small boy into her arms, and he squealed in surprise and delight. He loved being carried in his Master's (or Mistress's) arms. They were always so gentle with him, unlike some people in his past, and they were so comfortable, he could just fall asleep there all day and night.

"Well, off to the well, then. You think you can make something that can scale down the sides of a well and retrieve the pendant, Minxy?"

"Yes ma'am!" He said happily. Fang squeezed him in a hug.

"You are amazing."

In truth, the neko was being raised by the counsel since he didn't have a family, but Fang was seriously considering adopting the cute Illustrator. Of course, he'd be getting assigned a Creator once he was trained up, but Fang would take any excuse to keep the little boy by her side for as long as possible. Besides, she was old enough to have a son, and it wasn't like she was able…

Fang shook her head of those thoughts and focused on the child in her arms. It made her warm inside to think of adopting him, and she knew that the neko would be delighted with it as well. She had planned to tell Sai about it, as they lived together as partners, but he was captured before that was possible. Of course, she might be fired if things didn't work out, but as long as she got Sai back, it was likely that Alek and Aloja would vouch for her not to be punished that harshly for bringing back an Illustrator and keeping his powers from being abused.

The trio was about to head into the woods, when they saw someone sprinting out and heading right for them. At first, all they could really see was a streak of blonde, and then Minx jumped out of Fang's arms, landing gracefully on all fours like a cat before standing on two legs once more.

"Master Alek!"

It was indeed Alek that came running out of the trees and towards their group, but he didn't even seem to be paying attention to where he was going. He sprinted towards them, and they saw that he had his eyes covered with his hands. Once he got close enough, they heard he was sobbing hard, and he ended up running into Fang blindly. She caught him with a grunt, bringing him to a stop from his desperate flight.

"Alek?! Alek, what's wrong?"

"Aloja…! Aloja, he…! He was taken! Before I knew it he was…he was being taken away…and then he tried to run, but we were being sucked into this thing…and he made me let go…!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. Take a few deep breaths. Breathe, Alek. Come on, stay with me here. Now, explain what happened from the top."

"He's gone! Aloja's been taken by the guy that took Sai! He's been put in a fucking gem and his powers are being used against his will! And I tried to save him, but I couldn't do anything! I was helpless…!"

"Dammit, that wizard…" Fang muttered. "I need to have a few words with Gold about this. Alek, did he follow you?"

"I…I don't know. I just ran. I think…I think there was something, but…I managed to ward it off. I'm not sure when it stopped attacking me and when it stopped chasing me."

"If that man has Master Aloja…does that mean he also has Master's power to summon?" Minx asked. Realization dawned on Alek's face.

"Oh my…that's…that's not good."

"What is it?' Henry asked.

"Aloja is the Seventh Summoner of the Utakata line," Fang explained. "He's the most powerful Summoner I've ever met. If that wizard figures out Aloja's capabilities…he'll be nearly unstoppable, even with two writers and an Illustrator against him. With the right summon, he could destroy this entire town in a heartbeat. Heck, he could destroy most of the enchanted forest within the span of one summon. If he summons the wrong thing or doesn't do it properly though, Aloja might die within the pendant."

"We need to get Aloja back," Alek declared. "NOW!"

"Calm down, Alek. We'll get him back." She scoffed lightly. "But I suppose he could always be replaced, right?"

Alek looked appalled, before realizing what she was actually saying.

"I'm sorry…about what I said about Sai. I didn't mean it. Well, okay, I did mean  _some_  of it, but I'm over it now, all right?"

"What?" Fang blinked in surprise. Alek would never take anything back when it came to insulting Sai. Whenever confronted about it, he would usually brush it off or just flat out declare that he wasn't taking anything back. Aloja's capture must've really shaken him, Fang decided.

"I'm sorry. For all the times I've started fights without needing to, for being such a jerk of a friend when Sai came into our lives. I'm over it. Now what are we supposed to do to get Aloja back?"

Before Fang could answer, a loud roar echoed through the forest.

"Please tell me that's not Bahamut," Fang muttered.

"It's not Bahamut…?" Alek tried unconvincingly.

A large dragon flew up and into the sky, its darkly colored wings sending pulses through the air as it ascended and then loomed over the town. The Dragon King roared into the sky once more, probably waking up people on the other side of the planet. The summon's low growls as it breathed could be heard even from the ground, as its eyes searched for its target.

"What is that?!" Henry exclaimed.

"Bahamut, a mid-scale summon," Fang explained. "Plenty powerful enough to do major damage to this town. Alek, think you have enough strength for a protection barrier?"

"For a class B summon?" He asked skeptically. "Sure, why not?"

Fang and Alek stood side by side, putting their hands together in front of their chests as though they planned to pray. The two Writer's closed their eyes, took a pair of unison deep breaths, before their hands suddenly moved into a bunch of signs that looked to come straight out of Naruto. Their hand signs were formed in perfect synchronism, the result of years' worth of practice and repetition.

When the pair made their final hand gestures and froze, their eyes opened together to reveal a turquoise symbol glowing on each of their eyes.

"Utakata! Hogo!" They shouted together, their entire bodies pulsing and glowing with an aura the same color as the symbols in their eyes. The ground pulsed as though an earthquake had struck the town, before a wave of their turquoise energy flowed into the earth and a barrier began to rise up. A dome formed, encompassing the town in its protective glow.

"That should hold him back," Fang said, her and Alek returning to normal.

The Dragon King charged the barrier, and though it hit with a booming impact, the barrier held fast. The summon raked its claws across the light blue barrier, even blowing fire and then blasting it, but the protective wall held.

"What is that?" Henry asked.

"A barrier of Oracles," Alek said. "It's an Oracle's duty to protect his people-"

"Or  _her_  people," Fang interjected.

"And guide them forward. The weight falls upon us to make sure our societies advance and survive. We see the future, yes, and then we guide our people on the correct path towards that future, keeping our citizens safe."

"I thought you said you can't do anything to change the visions you see," Henry said.

"We see limited things, and it's an Oracle's job to reveal the right information, and find ways around visions that don't bode well for their people. Think of it like when someone spoils a movie or a book for you, or you saw/read the ending before you read the rest of the story. You may know what happens in the end, but that doesn't mean that the path to get there is set in stone yet, and visions always have limits, meaning we can work our way around them. Here's an example. Say there were three paths on a road, and you saw a vision of them taking the left path, but the vision cuts off there. That vision doesn't show them walking the entire length of that path and reaching its end, meaning, you could interfere the moment that the vision cuts off, maybe have someone walk up to that person and convince them to take another route after what you've seen has happened. Is this too complicated?"

Henry shook his head.

"No. I think I understand."

"Mistress is very wise, and a good teacher!" Minx declared, his tail wiggling expressively behind him.

"Anyway, the point is, it's our job to protect and guide our people, but we don't only do it by seeing visions of the future. We assist our people when battle reaches our shores by protecting our homes, like with a barrier, for example. I could make a barrier on my own, but not one this big. With my corresponding Oracle with me, we can protect this town from the majority of summons, at least for a while."

"Henry!" Someone called.

Three of them looked toward the direction of the voice, while Minx straightened in surprise and dashed behind Fang's leg in panic. Emma Swan and Regina were hurrying over to Henry.

"Henry, are you all right?" Emma asked.

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Regina asked.

"I swear, I'm all right," He insisted. "I've had Fang, and Minx, and now Alek too."

"Who?"

"Creator powers are weakened when Oracle powers are busted out in a big way," Fang explained before sighing. "I hate explaining things manually. I'm Fang, this is Alek, this is Minx." At his name, the neko gripped her leg and tried to hide behind it. "It's okay, Minxy. They're not gonna hurt you. Come here." She knelt down and picked up the little boy into her arms.

"They put the barrier around the town up," Henry explained.

"What exactly is that thing?" Emma asked.

"A class B summon from the Seventh Summoner of the Utakata line. Right now, he's being held hostage to a wizard who is apparently determined to destroy us and this town."

"Will that barrier you made hold for long?"

"As long as we need it to. Fatigue from energy expenditure only hits us after the spell has been dismissed."

"Bahamut's being dismissed," Alek announced, and the group looked up to find the dragon glowing white before dissolving into glowing white particles. Those particles faded to nothing with a small flash, and Bahamut was gone.

"I'm guessing that wizard dude isn't just gonna go home," Emma assumed.

"No," Alek agreed. "Aloja's got a lot of tricks up his sleeve, and he's the most powerful Summoner out there. If only I could've stopped this and protected him…"

"No sense beating yourself up for it," Fang said. "What's done is done. Now we have to focus on getting him back rather than wasting our time dwelling on what we could've done yet can't change."

"So what exactly is the plan then?" Regina asked. "Who the hell are we facing, anyway?"

"Some wizard. That's all I could find out before we had to run for our lives. Alek, you find anything out?"

"Only that he disguised himself as me to get close to Aloja," Alek said bitterly, kicking the ground and giving it a death glare. His hands were in his pockets, but they were very clearly clenched into fists.

"He did that with us, too," Fang admitted. "Transformed into Sai's master. I don't know who Sai's master is, since we're not from the same village, and so I had to trust him on the matter. Bad decision on my part. I sensed something wrong, but brushed it off. Now Sai's gone. I hope that Sai's pendant didn't fall into his hand too."

"I have it. Aloja and I retrieved it just before he was captured."

"Who's Sai?" Emma asked.

"Again with the explaining thing," Fang muttered. "He's a friend of ours." She went into an explanation about Writers, Illustrators, Oracles, Summoners, etc.

"Here," Alek said, handing over the pendant and the book he'd stolen. "Can you free him?" She took the items, Minx crawling on her shoulder to allow her hands to be free, nimble as a cat.

"Yes."

Before she could elaborate, the skies suddenly began to darken and tint blood red. The group looked up to find wisps of red energy appearing in the sky outside the barrier - which looked more purple with the blue tint - that were all flowing towards a single point. Hovering just above the trees was an object that looked to be a metallic lotus flower bud not yet in bloom. As the energy gathered, the petals slowly opened to reveal an egg-shaped ruby gem that pulsed as the energy conglomerated within.

"Oh no, he's not…" Fang muttered.

"What?" Emma asked.

"He's going to try and summon a Verboten Eidolon," Alek said.

"Little more explanation please," Regina requested.

"A forbidden summon, only to be used in extreme emergencies, and whenever a summon like that is used, the Summoner dies afterward."

"Will your barrier be able to hold it off?" Henry asked.

"Just the summoning of the thing will destroy a good deal of land," Fang said. "One attack from that summon and this entire town is toast. Heck, this thing that he's summoning could turn the entire Enchanted forest and all its people to dust in seconds. It's one of the most feared summons there is, and only the best Summoners stand a chance at summoning this guy for a minute at most, and they die afterward."

"Will Master Aloja die if he's in the pendant?" Minx asked.

"I hate to say it, but it's entirely possible. The gem will just lose all its power, on the outside, at least. And once started, any spell, summon, or otherwise, can't be stopped. That's why training to know your limits is so important, since a spell and such will drain your power until you die if you overtax yourself. Our barrier won't stand a chance against this thing. It would take every Oracle from our village to even stand a chance, and even then, all of us would probably have to give our lives or be on the verge of death if we had to try and block a direct attack."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Emma asked. "Run for it?"

"Evacuating the entire town would take too long. Summons like this take a while to charge, but not  _that_ long."

"Well we're not just gonna sit here and wait to die," Regina declared. "We've been through way too much to fall right now without a fight."

"I never said there isn't anything we couldn't try. We'll free Sai then try and find this wizard. If we can free Aloja, then…we might be able to stop the summoning."

"But you said you couldn't stop…" Henry began.

"I know what I said."

"We can't kill him," Alek declared, but he didn't seem as angry as he was desperate. "Please, Fang, we can't! He's our friend! He's one of us! An Oracle protects their people, and that includes him!"

"You think I like the position that we've just been put in?! I  _like_  Aloja! I love him like a brother, and I care for him as a member of my village, someone I took a vow that I would do  _anything_  to protect! I want to save him just as much as you do! But-!"

"If you really wanted to save him, you wouldn't be giving up on finding another way so easily!"

She gritted her teeth and looked ready to retaliate, when she hesitated as a realization hit her. Slowly, she relaxed her tensed muscles.

"You found out, didn't you? About Aloja."

"Y…Yeah. Right before he ran away and…and  _this_  happened."

She sighed and looked to the ground beside her, the energy seeming to drain from her system.

"So that's why you're acting like this."

"You knew?"

"Of course I knew, dumb-dumb. Come on, the guy was so obvious, and so I became friends with him, deemed him worthy of you, and introduced you two. I thought when you became partners, you'd eventually notice, or he'd get comfortable enough with you that he'd tell you or something. But apparently, when something is placed right in front of you, you are blind to it."

"Speak for yourself."

She blinked, her eyebrows raising in genuine confusion.

"Huh?"

"You can't be serious," Alek muttered.

"What?"

Alek sighed, throwing his hands up in an exasperated motion.

"Nevermind. It's not important now."

She shrugged.

"If you say so. Anyway…I think there  _might_  be a way we could save Aloja."

Alek perked up, suddenly listening very closely. Had he been a neko, his ears would've risen and his tail would've froze. Fang could just see it now.

"It's a very,  _very_  long shot, but there  _is_  a possibility that if we take control of the pendant, and therefore the summon, we could divert its attack elsewhere, and save Storybrooke. Once the summon is over, we have to release Aloja from the pendant and then instantly heal him, give him more energy so that he doesn't die from the summoning's toll. The only problems lie in actually getting the pendant from this wizard without him absorbing  _us_  into pendants as well, and the fact that we have literally seconds to perform a releasing spell on the pendant, which, according to this book, takes a lot longer than that. Also, once Aloja's free, we'll have milliseconds to stop him from instantly dying when the cost of the summoning hits him. The odds are miniscule at best, and I have no idea how we'd pull any of these challenges off with the barrier still needed to any other summons from posing  _another_  threat - as multiple summons can be used at the same time - meaning our powers are going to be limited as well."

"We've got plenty of people willing to help you, you know," Emma offered.

"We'd have to bring the counsel into this if we wanted to bring you guys into this. The only reason we're even talking about this is because we need to stop anyone from interfering in your lives in a significant way, and wiping you off the map with a summon fits within that category. In the rare event that someone from our division goes rogue, protocol is to protect anyone from dying with all our power, and then once we're done, leave you with no memories of anything happening. The more you interfere, the harder it is to wipe everything away."

"To hell with all your laws and whatnot," Regina declared. "People's lives are at stake, and I'm not gonna stand by and hope that you guys can perform miracles all on your own."

"We could get fired for breaking protocol."

"Get a new job then."

"In our line of work, getting fired means more than no longer having income. Rogue Writer's and Illustrators can cause major problems."

"So you're killed if you're fired, is that it?"

"No, worse."

"What? Torture?"

"Close, but still no."

"What then?"

"Confidential."

"Well whatever your punishment is, this thing doesn't look like it cares either way. What's worse? You getting fired, or this thing destroying the entire town? I don't know how important you are to the world, but there are dozens of people in this town who don't deserve to get killed because of someone else's mistakes."

"Regina! Don't say that!" Emma scolded.

"What? The truth? You can't sugarcoat the world and expect things to turn out like you want them. If we could save everyone, if we could convince all our enemies to just stand down and become nice, then the world would be great. But guess what? That's not the world, Emma, and you of all people should know it."

"You're not the one who decides who lives and who dies, and you have no right to choose for someone else."

"'Who is more foolish? The one who believes they can choose who lives and who dies, or the one who believes they can save them all?'" Fang recited.

"Obviously the one who thinks they can save them all," Regina said bluntly. "I wish there was a way to save everyone, but this is life, and that's impossible."

"We're not leaving Aloja to die," Alek declared.

"No one's saying that," Fang said. "The only problem here is whether we're willing to break the rules in order to help the odds of succeeding. So, Mr. "Don't Break the Rules," ready to listen to reason?"

Alek winced, realizing how idiotic he had been before.

"Yeah. I'd rather be fired with Aloja than live knowing I didn't try everything I could to save him."

"Then we move swiftly. We free Sai, and you gather everyone you think is willing to help. Gather them somewhere while we deal with releasing my friend in the pendant, and then we explain a battle plan. It takes a Verboten Eidolon at least ten minutes to gather the energy necessary for both the summoning and the attacks. Cut that time short, and you may end up summoning the monster but have it incapable of using an effective attack, or have its attack be in a weakened state."

"Ten minutes isn't a lot of time," Emma commented.

"It's a lot of time if you use it wisely. Regina, you can probably teleport everyone to the same place in seconds. Just explain to them the situation and allow us time to release Sai and test out the spell for Aloja later on. Now go!"

The two women nodded before disappearing in a cloud of purple smoke each.

"All right, people. Time to do about five impossible things all at once."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't mean for this to be a crossover. The summons are just there because, A: I am a major Final Fantasy nerd, and B: Anyone who thinks the Verboten Eidolon is weak has never played Final Fantasy Type Zero.


	10. Yama Hui Ken Sai

"All right," Fang began. "Henry, you're an Author, but that doesn't mean you're incapable of Writer/Illustrator-like abilities. All you need is the right pen." She dug through her bag and pulled out a fountain pen and a note pad. "Here. Keep us updated on the situation. Just let your hands do the work, don't concentrate much on what you're writing or drawing. Give yourself a topic to write about, push your powers in the right direction, and the pen should handle the rest. Minx, get ready for the spell."

She opened the spell book from Regina's vault and began flipping through the pages. Once she found the page, she handed the book to Minx and began explaining what he was to do. Minx held on to every word, nodding when she asked him things, his tail flicking in his determination.

"All right. Aloja, still got some Oracle juice left in you?"

"Enough."

"Then once Minx has this drawn, we need to assist him in powering the spell. He's fully capable of performing this, but he's gonna need some more energy to avoid passing out or killing himself. We're breaking a spell designed specifically not to be broken, so this is gonna take a lot of power."

Minx began walking in a circle, his eyes on the book in his hands. His tail trailed behind him, leaving a black line of ink on the ground as he walked. He created a perfect circle, and then stepped back. He set the book on the ground in front of him, and kneeled down to all fours. He concentrated for a moment, and spread his arms and legs in a battle stance. His tail flicked forward above him and then began to draw with the speed of an Illustrator, ink appearing in the air above the circle he'd drawn. It created a pattern, before said pattern fell into the circle on the ground.

"Done, Mistress," Minx announced. "It's ready when you are."

Fang took Sai's pendant and placed it in the center of the confusing pattern.

"Sure you're up for this, Minxy?"

"Master Sai needs me!" He said firmly.

"Okay then. These are the symbols you need to enact. It's gonna be draining, but no matter what, you can't let the spell overwhelm you."

Minx nodded before his tail moved to draw another symbol, the ink staying in the air this time right where his tail moved.

"Alek?" The two Oracles put a hand on either of the boy's shoulders as the symbol where the pendant was sitting in began to pulse and glow with a dark purple.

The symbol that Minx had in front of him glowed gold as the spell began, and the ground seemed to tremble at the force it was requiring. The three of them instantly began to feel the strain, and the pendant rose up a few feet as it hummed with energy.

"It has a strong barrier," Minx warned.

"Focus the energy," Fang advised.

The three of the concentrated, pushing power into the spell and against the pendant's wards.

The pendant began to pulse, a light beginning to flicker on it, revealing the wards that hovered just above the surface. The purple of the symbol glowed brighter, streams of light stretching out to poke at the pendant's barrier and push against it from all sides, sparks crackling where they made contact.

Minx's golden symbol glowed brighter as well, and the three of them held their breaths as they tried to force more power into the spell.

The barrier began to flicker and crack.

Minx began to grunt as he gave it one last push.

All of the symbols flashed, blinding everyone in the area. Pure energy exploded with the shattering of the barrier, and the power that had to be sent through the spell in order to do so. The group was met with a blast of energy shoving them all back.

When the light finally faded, everyone looked to see as the pendant dropped to the ground with a small thunk.

"Sai?" Fang asked, looking around. "Sai?!"

She searched frantically, but he didn't seem to be anywhere.

"Did it not work?"

"We would be dead if it didn't," Alek pointed out. "A spell like that would've continued to drain all of our strength until we were dead if we weren't able to properly power it."

"The pendant appears to be empty," Minx reported, holding it in his hands. The gem looked to be completely clear, devoid of Sai's power that had once made it a navy blue.

"Then where is he?" Fang muttered.

The group looked around, before they noticed small dots of energy flying through the air. They stared small, no bigger than the dust you'd see in sunbeams, and barely noticeable, but soon, they grew bigger and brighter, looking like fireflies. Once they were big enough to follow, they all seemed to be heading towards the same direction, where the pendant had rested within Minx's symbol.

Once they reached where the center of the symbol had been, they faded away again. They began disappearing further and further out from the center, until eventually there was another explosion of light.

It wasn't as intense as the previous one from the symbols, and lasted only a second, before revealing a black-haired boy a little taller than Alek. Slung across his back was a large scroll of paper about four feet tall and six inches in diameter.

"Sai!" Fang shouted, tackling him with a hug. He stumbled back from the force, still a bit wobbly on his feet.

"Hey," He muttered. "You know something? That was  _not_  fun."

"No, no it wasn't. Don't ever scare me like that again, okay?"

"I'll try my best."

"Great, so it worked," Alek said. "We should get back to town and get to work. We have about five minutes now."

"Right. I'm caught up on everything already. This is not gonna be easy. Once we get started, we don't have a second for hesitation. Minx, how are you? Think you've still got some juice?"

"Yes, sir!" Minx said, saluting with his tail.

"So you're Sai?" Henry asked.

"Yes. Henry Mills, nice to meet you. I'm Yama Hui Ken Sai. I'd properly introduce myself, but we have about four minutes now to stop Armageddon."

* * *

"Henry, anything?" Fang asked.

"I'm not sure."

She walked over and looked to the notepad she'd given him and found him drawing…a notebook.

"Great, inception," Alek muttered. " _Very_  helpful."

"That doesn't necessarily look like the notebook that Fang gave you," Sai said. "Alek, do you have Aloja's notebook on you?"

Alek looked surprised, before digging through his bag and pulling it out.

"Yeah. Aloja threw it at me before…" He couldn't finish, and Fang quickly moved the topic along.

"Let's have a look here…" She flipped through the pages (noticing a large percentage were of Alek) and finally settling on a page. "There. Oh, Aloja, you're a genius."

"What is it?" Henry asked.

She showed the book to everyone. On the page was a pencil drawing of Aloja, held down on his knees by chains that protruded out from the ground. His eyes were closed, and the chains seemed to be smeared, as though Aloja had erased them with a bad eraser, or they were covered in a black smoke.

"Minx! I need your help. Bring the drawing to life, will you?"

Minx looked confused, but tapped his tail to the image. It shimmered for a moment, before the pencil began to dissolve, like someone had thrown water on it. The graphite turned to dust in the air and moved to the side before reforming into a life-sized 3-D image of what had once been on the page.

"Aloja!" Alek called, disbelief and hesitance causing his voice to shake.

The image of Aloja began to take color, the black smoke that Fang had suspected being around the chains, moving away from Aloja and down into the ground where they came from. Slowly, the image began to clean itself up so that it no longer looked like a photo-shopped hand-drawing and more like the real thing.

Once the image had formed, Aloja slumped slightly, as though an invisible string had been cut and he had fully materialized. Then, he raised his head, opening his eyes.

"Alek?" He asked.

"Aloja!"

He moved to tackle Aloja with a hug. Aloja was unable to return the favor, being bound by the dark chains, but he rested his head on Alek's shoulder. It was good enough for Alek.

"Listen to me," Aloja said. "I don't think I have a lot of time."

"Why the heck are you chained up?" Alek demanded.

"What? Expected me to be lounging around inside a pendant holding me against my will and draining my power without consent?"

"The pendants bound us like that, attaching themselves to our power and chaining our will," Sai explained. "They drain our power when it's used, and take the control of it away from us."

"The only reason I'm here is because of Minxy, and you having my journal. It should keep you updated on my situation, and I'll try and send you messages through it if I can. Now listen to me. He's sending an army to hold you all off before the summon is prepared. He's preparing Divine Light, a rank 5 attack, meaning that it's gonna take longer than you all expected, though not by much. I'd say you now have another five minutes at most, eight in all now. Until then, he's sending an army, and not a pretty one at that. The residents of Storybrooke won't be able to hold them off."

"What kind of army?" Henry asked.

"The Reavers. I'll let the others explain it since I don't have the time. Anyway, we're in the forest outside of Storybrooke, still near that place I was captured, Alek. This wizard guy is still using your form, and I think it's because he doesn't like or doesn't have a form of his own. Whoever he really is, I think he's intent on just erasing the world, not ruling it or anything. He seems to know a lot about the Creators, even though we're supposed to be a covert organization, and so that leads me to assume he's a rogue. I think you should mention it to the counsel, and they might help you take him down, but I'm not sure if you have the time."

His image began to shimmer, like he was made of smoke and the wind was beginning to wear away at him.

"Aloja-" Alek began.

"No time. He knows you're coming, and he's sending the Reavers to keep the town from helping you. He won't hesitate to use me more and more in order to try and stop you, meaning the odds of saving me before I die are going to be near impossible. You need to destroy the pendant with me inside and cancel out this whole thing. I'm going to die either way, so you'd best kill me before my summons can do any serious damage."

"Aloja, we are  _not_  letting you die!" Alek declared.

"Don't be stupid, Alek. You  _know_  it's moronic to try and save me with so many odds stacked against you!"

"I don't care! You are a member of my village, and I will  _not_  just give up on you!"

"It's one life against dozens! Will you just shut up and listen to me for once?!"

"No! Because, dammit, Aloja! I didn't listen to you before even though you were apparently being  _very_ obvious, so I'm going to remain stubborn and blind until you give me a proper reason not to be! And you can't very well do that if you're dead, now can you?! So I don't care what you say, we're rescuing you!"

"Alek, I'm only a Summoner who randomly barged in on your little group of Oracles. I'm not worth saving. To make matters worse, I'm…well, you know. I don't belong, I'm a freak, and the world wouldn't miss me."

"Who gives a shit about them? We would miss you!  _I_  would miss you! We would fall apart without you because we couldn't protect you! Plus…plus Minxy is really attached to you and he would be sad if you're gone!"

"Yeah!" Minx agreed. "We'll save you, Master!"

"Don't you dare give up on us now, Lo," Fang agreed.

"I'm not letting you suffer in that thing," Sai said. "I know what it's like when you're stuck in one of those things. We're gonna get you out one way or another, and Alek's right. We would all miss you. You're a big part of our lives, ya little goofball."

"And what the hell made you think  _any_  of us judge you for your sexuality?" Alek scolded. "You have spent  _way_  too much time in the 19th century. None of us  _care_ , and none of us hate you in any way for it. It's not a crime! It doesn't make you sick! It makes you unique, and I think it's cool! You're an awesome Summoner, you're our friend, you're an amazing Illustrator, you're really smart, you're kind, you're…everything! Everything good, and nothing bad! So you're shy. That's cute, like Minx! So you're gay. Who the hell gives a shit?! It's who you are! No one can blame you for it!"

Alek got on his knees and shook Aloja by his shoulders, as if to shake him out of whatever daze of stupidity he was in.

"You are not worthless! We are not letting you die, and we are sure as hell not going to be the ones to kill you just because you ask for it!"

"But-"

Alek attacked Aloja's mouth with his own, effectively silencing anymore protests. He tasted slightly like ink, but Alek wasn't deterred.

"Shut up, Aloja."

Aloja's face seemed both flustered and nervous at the same time.

"Does…does this mean you…?"

"You're gonna have to make it out of this to find out."

Aloja looked baffled, surprised with a slight hint of hope spreading across his face. And with that, Aloja turned to a cloud of ink and dissolved into the wind.

Alek sat on his knees for a moment, before standing and turning to the others.

"Well, what are we waiting for, people?! Five minutes! Let's move it!"

He waved for them to follow as he hurried back to town.

Fang and Sai smiled before shrugging and following. Minx excitedly ran after too, and Henry quickly joined.

* * *

Aloja gasped as he opened his eyes, still within the pendant. All he could see was a vast room of white, with the chains that bound him contrasting with dark smoke.

Ahead of him was a giant image in the shape of a teardrop - what he could see from the inside of the pendant he was trapped within.

His thoughts were spinning around in his head frantically, and he dared to believe that what he'd just saw wasn't just a dream. He dared to hope Alek meant what he said, meant what he did. He dared to hope that they would come for him, rescue him successfully.

He had more hope than he should have, and it would only lead to more disappointment if he was wrong.

But still, he hoped anyway.


	11. The Rursan Reavers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Gasp* I have returned to this story?! Inconceivable!
> 
> Well, sort of conceivable, I guess.
> 
> Sorry for being away so long, but blame it on my muse running off into the distance while leaving its minions school, work, lack of sleep, and etc. behind to delay me.
> 
> Then it started throwing ideas for other stories at me, and so this story kinda got left in the dust. But, one guest reviewed with a nice comment saying that I'm probably never coming back to this story, and if they're reading I have come to say I have returned! (To this story. I've been on other ones more recently)
> 
> Reviews help chapters come faster. I never thought it possible, but I have been proven wrong.
> 
> BTW, I own none of the characters from other stories that make an appearance here, and this is not meant to be a crossover - since honestly, there are too many franchises to crossover here. If you don't recognize some of the people, then honestly, I feel sorry for you, for one, but leave a review or PM me and I can tell you where they're from. I also have a couple of my OCs from my other stories in here too, which I do own, I suppose.
> 
> Yeah, this chapter is literally just me going all FanFic nerd on this and putting a bunch of characters I like into the story. Feel free to gloss over this and move onto the next chapter if you don't care.

"The enemy we are facing is one of the most deadly in existence," Fang announced. "They have only one purpose for their existence: the end of the world. They are called the Rursan Reavers, or Rursus for short. They are going to stall the town indefinitely, as they multiply without end when summoned. Aloja is working to buy us as much time as he can, but the Rursus will prove to be able to hold us back for far longer. They are an enemy that Storybrooke cannot defeat. The best course of action for all of you is to scatter and take refuge."

"You expect us to just sit back and hide while our town is under siege?!" A man with a pickaxe called.

"You cannot defeat the Rursus. Even  _one_  of those things will be tougher than any monster and enemy you've ever faced in the past. They are ruthless, they don't waste time, and they will not stop until every one of you is dead and bleeding out on the streets of your hometown."

"We still can't just stand here and do nothing," Regina agreed. "There must be  _something_  we can do."

"The Rursus have the ability to teleport around the battlefield, make themselves temporarily immune to all attacks, turn themselves invisible, inflict massive wounds with a single strike of the blade and make you vulnerable to even the smallest injury. Even if you're able to knock one out, you can't kill it. It will regenerate its strength gradually and be up and about within minutes of its defeat. There is nothing human within them, nothing that can care about anything. They will walk to their deaths willingly, even if you're able to slaughter millions of their kind, and they will only get stronger with each one that you  _are_  able to defeat. Not to mention that with each attack, they inflict damage to your soul itself, and if you take too many hits, it will be impossible to heal yourself no matter how many healing spells you put into it. To fight such a force is a suicide mission, no matter how powerful you are."

"Can we find a way to stop their regeneration?" Emma asked. "There has to be a way to kill them, at least stall them and protect the citizens for as long as you need to rescue your friend."

"The only way to put them out of commission and prevent regeneration is to harvest their souls, a talent which none of you possess, and one that can't simply be learned with the snap of a finger, not even were I to try and give you the ability. There is too much that goes into being able to harvest their souls for good."

"Then how do you expect us to protect ourselves?" David - or Prince Charming, as the books call him - asked. "Even if we hide, if those things are as bad as you're claiming, we won't be able to stay hidden for long."

"I'm going to give you an army of people that will be able to hold them off," Sai said. "Believe it or not, there are  _some_  people that have managed to master the art of harvesting souls, and they do so on a regular basis. There are also people that have powers over souls themselves, people trained to handle those that can revive themselves. They'll defend the townspeople."

"Can't we at least help?" Mary - or Snow White - asked. "It's hard to sit back and let others protect you, and we want to be of use in protecting our town. We've not fought and made it this far to just sit back and do nothing."

Fang sighed and looked to Sai and Alek. "We'll be breaking more rules."

Sai shrugged. "We've broken enough already. A few more won't hurt. And the board will probably fix it up later. Might as well enjoy freedom while it lasts."

"Besides, crossovers are fun," Alek said.

"Might as well then," Fang conceded. "Sai, get the summons here."

"I thought you weren't a summoner," Henry said.

"I'm not, but we Illustrators can draw other people's creations and bring them to life, which is  _basically_ summoning. Now, who do we want?"

He pulled the large scroll off his back and a paintbrush.

Fang hummed in thought, before snapping her fingers. "Let's get out the class, first."

He nodded and flung his scroll out, holding onto one end. The thing had to have been heavy, but he threw it with ease and it soared through the air like magic. When the scroll landed, it had unraveled about twenty meters.

Sai then zipped across the canvas, his paintbrush working at the speed of an Illustrator, and his creations began to glow moments after he'd drawn them. People began climbing off the page one by one, each of them in academic school uniforms as well as some variation of a red cape (except one who had just a handkerchief sticking out of her jacket).

"This is Class Zero," Fang introduced. She pointed from left to right down the line. "Ace, Deuce, Trey, Cater, Cinque, Sice, Seven, Eight, Nine, Jack, Queen, King. Got it? Got it? Good. We've got some Rursus to fight, guys."

"Sounds like a party," Sice said.

"Let's go beat 'em into the ground, yo!" Nine shouted.

"Would you take this seriously?" Queen reprimanded, pushing up her glasses. "The Rursus are  _not_  to be taken lightly."

"We beat 'em once, we can beat 'em again," Ace said. "Besides, we're only trying to hold them off for a few minutes. We did that like ten times back in Pandaemonium."

"Great!" Fang said, clapping her hands together. "Now, should we bring in Machina and Rem?"

Sai shrugged. "It's up to you. They never faced the Rursus before, though."

"I think this class will be enough. Now to others I had planned."

Sai nodded and began his drawing once more. This time, a boy no older than Henry stepped off the canvas, looking like a normal emo teenage minus the dark sword hanging at his hip.

"Yes?" He asked.

"We need your Stygian sword and underworld-y powers, Nico," Alek said.

"Oh! Let's not forget his brother!"

Sai began to draw another person, and this time another boy came out, dressed in dark colors with a sword as well, but he had to be around 18 years old, a few years older than Nico.

"I present to you, Nico di Angelo and Zytaveon Kanazoi!" Fang introduced.

"Yo, what's up? I'm Veon."

"Nico."

"Boys, we've got some guys who need soul collecting to be defeated."

Nico sighed. "Sounds like a normal day."

" _Sounds_  like a party," Veon corrected.

"That's what I said," Sice agreed.

"Hey, Sice."

"Yo."

"Your idea of a party must be much different than mine," Nico said. "And I was just going to meet Will…"

"And you say you don't like him…" Veon muttered.

"What?!"

"What?"

"Hm, who else?" Fang muttered. "Sai?"

He began drawing, and this time, a man in dark armor appeared, dark blue/purple hair, and a large sword with an eye on it on his back.

"This is Caius Ballad."

"What have you brought me here for?" He asked.

"Big baddies, soul control needed."

"Understood. Collateral allowances?"

"Keep the people alive, but we can fix buildings later. Now, who else?"

"Reapers?" Alek suggested.

"Oh, yeah!"

Sai smiled and got to work on a whole new set of people, all except two dressed in identical suits with varying types of glasses, and all holding gardening tools of some kind. The exceptions to the matching outfits were a man with a red jacket that didn't seem to fit him, only hanging on at his arms, and another with grey and black robes.

"Shinigami!" Sai presented.

"We've got some soul problems, boys," Fang announced. "Grell, you are allowed to go crazy on the enemies with your Death Scythe."

The man in red smiled to reveal rows of sharp teeth. "Music to me ears, darling."

"Let's get some pure man-power out here as well," Alek recommended. "Still with soul control-"

"We are so trademarking that," Fang declared.

"-but with more attacking power so that we can take them down and allow the others to do the harvesting."

Sai got to work, and another three people stepped out. There was an older man in white robes and a crown-like hat that looked to be of royalty, holding a staff, a younger man dressed in black with multiple daggers at his belt and a purple, red, and orange phoenix-style sword at his hip that seriously contrasted the rest of his outfit, and an agender person with dirty-blond curls going down to their hips and a large buster-sword type blade at their back.

"The fal'Cie Barthandelus, Mataecharonsan, and Asushunamir!" Fang introduced.

"Why is the sky red?" Shu asked.

"Because its full of evil," Charon responded.

"A summon of immense powers, I'd wager," Barthandelus said. "Dare I say worthy of Ragnarok."

"Enough with the doom and gloom, Bart," Shu complained.

"We're having you fight an army, not the summon," Alek explained.

"Ooo, armies."

"Army of bad guys, Namir," Charon reminded them.

"More people to beat up," They concluded.

"Rikku!" Alek requested. "With two k's," He clarified.

Sai nodded and a teenage girl came from his scroll of paper this time.

"Ha, ha! Let's do this thing!" She shouted, pumping a fist.

They summoned a pink-haired woman named Lightning, all decked out in her Savior outfit, as well as a man in red carrying a large sword, Auron.

"Is that it?" Sai asked.

"It should be enough," Fang admitted. "But honestly, the list would not end, were it up to me. I have some seriously OP creations that might come in handy, but they're higher ranking summons, meaning they'll sap more of your strength than necessary, and we've still got a challenge ahead of us with freeing Aloja."

"You could always borrow a couple of us to help," Veon suggested.

"No point in going in without a little more assistance," Trey agreed.

"Taking out the source of the army should be taken just as serious as the army itself," Caius agreed. "You should take your smaller team seriously, else the rest of us fighting will be obsolete."

"We're gonna need people that are fast and can attack quickly. We're also going to need people that have big energy reserves to transfer over to a friend of ours. And some people who are quick at summoning. A couple tanks might be useful as well."

"Cater is the fastest shooter we have," Seven said.

"I might be of some assistance," The Reaper in black, only known as Undertaker, offered.

"Shu and I have vast reserves of energy, as well as powerful fighting skills," Charon added.

"I specialize in alchemy and magicks," Queen declared.

"Hey, so do I!" Rikku volunteered. "And Auron's a good tank!"

"I'm pretty useful in stealth with my shadow traveling," Veon finished.

"Right," Alek said. "Me, Fang, Sai, Cater, uh…that guy with the scythe, Charon, Shu, Rikku, Auron, Queen and Veon. That should be a diverse and big enough crew to handle the wizard dude causing the summoning, and the rest of you will have to hold the Rursus off. I have no doubt there's going to be a lot of them, and with the rate you guys are going to be killing them, you're all gonna have to keep track of what Rursus need their souls collected and which ones are already being killed properly."

"We've wasted enough time," Fang said. "Let's get moving. We can only buy so much time with Writer powers and Aloja's resistance. Oh, right. Storybrooke residents? Uh…you guys can help out if you want too."

With that, she ran off towards the forest, the designated group members following her, as the fight for Storybrooke and existence itself began.


	12. The Fight For Existence Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't ask me how this happened. I just put the first things that popped into my head into this story with the "What could go wrong?" concept behind it.
> 
> The future chapters might give spoilers about what I have planned for my OCs in their original stories from whence they come. I'll try to avoid it, but the careful reader will be able to predict things from what is said here. You have been warned.

An army of tall warriors walked into town. They almost seemed to be made of armor, as each step clanked in a constant rhythm. The army hovered about a foot above the ground, walking slowly. Their faces seemed to be plastered on, like masks, as the eyes appeared to be closed and were calm. They didn't seem to be in a hurry, but that made them all the creepier.

Caius transformed into a Chaos Bahamut and hacked away at a group of Rursus. Class Zero summoned their weapons in a few flashes of light and began separating to strike throughout the masses, the Grim Reapers doing the same. Barthandelus held his staff high before it began glowing with orbs of energy. He swung his staff and the orbs went flying toward the army, exploding on impact and knocking a good deal of them back. Nico was shadow traveling across the battlefield, darkening the area as he summoned shadows and slashed with his Stygian blade. Lightning hacked and slashed at high speeds, leaving only a pink glow and a few rose petals in her wake.

Emma dived out of the way of one of the Rursus when it swung its sword. The blade glowed with a larger blade silhouette at least three times the size of the original sword, causing the ground to shake from the impact. The glowing extra part of the blade only lasted for a split second during the swing, and disappeared a moment after it was completed, allowing the Rursus to move with grace and not having to lug around a ten-ton weapon.

She held out her hands and blasted the creature with an explosion of light energy, causing the Reaver to flinch before it recovered and slowly walked forward towards her again. Snow drew her bow (ha, rhymes) and shot the Reaver as many times as she could, while Regina was throwing all the spells she could at any Reaver she could see.

As they were told, the Reavers constantly faded to invisibility, most of the time completely vanishing and teleporting somewhere else, only to reappear and get in one of their deadly swings. A couple of times, when they were knocked down, they went through a transformation into an even creepier version, a second large face on their stomachs and a sword four times as big. Not to mention the fact that once it got low on health, it grew glowing wings and zipped around at lightning speed, making it hard to hit and allowing it to do damage to a wide area of people.

It was chaos on the battlefield, hacking and slashing with weapons, blasting and zapping with magic, transformations, and explosions as souls were harvested by Class Zero.

* * *

Meanwhile, the group out in the forest hurried forward.

"Look out!"

Everyone took cover behind trees as bullets were fired their way.

The ground sbook from heavy footsteps and the sound of mooing filled the air.

"FROGs and Gekkos!" Alek called.

"Metal Gear Solid?" Veon called.

"Yep! Hard nuts to crack."

"They're still organic!" Sai called. "The Gekkos have legs that can bleed and be affected by tranqs."

He pulled his scroll from his back and shook it, an arsenal of guns and ammo coming out. He grabbed a couple of them and tossed one to Fang, Alek, Charon, Shu, and Veon.

"Have a party!"

Cater moved to fire her Magicite Pistol at the troops of FROGs, her gun clicking before she launched a grenade and rolled back behind cover.

"Let's see how you like this!" Veon called.

A lance formed in his hand and he jumped high into the air, pulsing with energy. "Highwind!" He slammed down into one of the Gekkos, sending a shockwave out to the surrounding enemies. "Boom! Eat that!"

"Goodbye, ladies," Undertaker said before swinging his scythe across a wave of the FROGs. He laughed maniacally as he shot around the battlefield, swinging at any unfortunate that got in his way.

Queen waved her hand and shot blasts of lightning at the Gekko in front of her, before moving in and stabbing its legs with quick and rapid attacks. Rikku turned and fiddled with some things from her bag before turning and chucking a grenade that exploded, killing some FROGs while putting some to sleep, blinding some, dazing some, confusing some, poisoning some, and disabling the weapons of some.

"Boo ya!"

"Look out!"

Auron hurried in front of Rikku in a defensive stance and blocked a Gekko from crushing her, sending it back and slashing its leg clean through.

Charon was swinging his Zanmato blade left and right, instantly taking down Gekko after Gekko, and Shu waved their hands to have the forest around them spring to life, some plants growing out of nowhere while those that had already been there moving on their own and growing vines into the machines. Even the people were getting a nasty taste of plant growth with some fast-growing, human-designed cordyceps, which did  _not_  leave a pretty image behind.

"Okay, that's kinda gross," Charon said.

"But effective." Shu jumped with a shriek as one of the FROGs fell in front of them, growing fungus out of her head. "But also gross, yeah."

Alek and Fang weren't exactly top-notch fighters, but they could still hold their own, shooting down any enemy that came their way, with Sai opening his scroll to send out a barrage of bullets and knives.

"They're still coming!" Cater shouted. "How many of these guys  _are_  there?!"

"There were an infinite wave of FROGs at the end of MGS 4," Veon admitted. "And there were a couple of infinite waves of Gekkos as well."

She rolled out of the way of a Gekko that tried to stomp on her, charging her gun before letting out a large blast of energy that exploded and took the Gekko's leg clean off. "Oh! That's just  _great!_ "

"We make a swift retreat," Queen declared. "Fighting this pointless battle is only wasting the time Aloja is buying us and is wasting our resources."

"Let's move!" Auron ordered.

"Go on ahead, lads," Undertaker said. "I'll handle them for as long as you need."

"Alone?" Rikku asked.

He smiled, one of his green Reaper eyes showing from his mess of silver hair. "I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve, little girl. Now run along and do what you have to. They're all mine."

With that, he launched forward, laughing hysterically, as he swung in a wide arc, slicing down a wave of FROGs and knocking the Gekkos back, every enemy going down in one swing.

"Let's take his word for it and move!" Charon said. "We've got to free your friend, right? If he's being used to summon these guys, then every enemy he sends decreases the chances of his rescue."

Alek nodded. "Right."

They ran through the woods, Undertaker hacking and slashing behind them, destroying the enemies with earth-shaking force.

"Which way is it again?" Cater asked.

"This way!" Shu said confidently. "The natural energy in this place doesn't like what's happening. It's screaming at us to help."

"Are you okay?" Charon asked.

"It's like a thousand people are screaming into my ears and mixing my insides like a blender, but I'll manage."

"He's right about the energy thing, though," Veon said.

"I am not a 'he!'" Shu snapped. "I am agender!"

"Okay, okay. But the energy from all living things is being drained, even from the air. Death is already taking over things from the energy being stolen to  _power_  this summon, and ever more death is approaching once that thing is active."

"You guys can sense that kind of stuff?" Rikku asked. " _Coo-ool!_ "

"Make haste then," Auron ordered.

They hurried through the forest, and Shu ran forward. "It should be right…here?"

"What is…?" Veon asked before he saw what Shu was looking at and a similar look of surprise and then horror overtook his face. "Oh no."

"What?" Cater asked.

In front of them was a large maze, going as far as the eye could see. The entire thing was alive, moving pathways, machines clanking and whirring, and gasses being shot into the air to obscure certain parts, no doubt being poisonous.

"It's a labyrinth," Sai muttered.

" _The_  Labyrinth," Veon corrected. "The one Daedalus built in Greek mythology. I've been there before, but…I guess I've never see it so active and deadly."

"It must be a beefed up version," Fang said.

"And we're gonna have to get  _through_  that thing?!" Rikku asked. "Can't we just…fly over it or something?"

"Flying risks crashing," Alek said. "If it were that easy, this thing wouldn't be known as one of the deadliest traps in existence. Besides, this thing might be specifically designed to counter our abilities and powers. No cheating."

"Is Aloja at the middle of it, some random location, or at the other side?" Sai wondered.

"None seem very appealing," Cater groaned.

"There must be a way," Queen declared, pushing her glasses up in thought.

"Sai, can you summon something to…I don't know, crush the labyrinth or disable it?" Charon asked.

"I don't know if it'll work. That guy may not have a Writer with him, but Illustrator and summoning power together makes for a deadly combination."

"We'll try and make sure whatever happens is effective," Alek said. "Without Aloja I'm a bit weaker, but Rei's back to full Writer strength, and our Oracle bond will prove useful as well."

"Can you two eliminate any issues and traps within the maze?" Queen asked.

"Not easily," Fang said. "It would have to be within a limited range, and if we were to break concentration for even a second, all the dangers of the maze would be released at us all at once, and with a group so big, someone's bound to get hurt."

"It's worth a shot. We press onward through the labyrinth, allowing you to guide the group along the way while we protect you and make sure nothing breaks your focus."

"It's the best option we have," Charon agreed.

They all headed to the entrance to the labyrinth and Alek and Fang created a barrier around the group. "The theory is this should protect against any traps," Fang explained. "We keep our concentration and nothing should break through. We'll make it so that we walk on the straightest path we can to Aloja. Don't break the bubble, and don't do anything to scare us or the bubble pops, our control lags for even a moment, and this labyrinth can take everyone down within seconds."

They walked through the deadly corridor, both Fang and Alek walking with their eyes shut on auto-pilot, stepping in sync. Around them, numerous attacks and traps were striking the barrier. At one point, they nearly walked off a cliff, but the moment the bubble's edge reached the ledge, the gap suddenly began to close where they were walking.

They were safe from the labyrinth's dangers, but they were still moving at a slow pace, and the maze was enormous, the corridors going on endlessly.

"Alek…help me!"

"Lo?"

He looked around to find Aloja down one of the pathways behind them. He was coughing his lungs out from poisonous air, and suddenly his leg fell into a small pit with what looked like a bear trap. It snapped at his ankle, causing him to scream and fall forward, only to have a spike shoot out from the wall, piercing his shoulder clean through and pinning him to the wall.

"Aloja!"

"Alek, wait!" Sai shouted.

Alek surged forward, and Sai reached to grab his arm and stop him, but he ran past the barrier bubble and it popped, releasing poisonous gas into the group, the horrors of the labyrinth swarming in.

Alek ignored the chaos around him, instinctively protecting himself from everything as his Writer powers influenced the world around them. He ran forward to Aloja, while everyone else was forced to scatter, the labyrinth forcing them to split up without them even realizing it.

"Aloja!"

Aloja was bleeding heavily, blood streaming from his wounds as well as his mouth and nose. "Alek, run. Get out of here!"

"What?"

"You're an idiot, Alek. I'm fake, sent here to break your concentration. Now get out of here before you and the others are all doomed!"

The injured boy suddenly froze up, like someone had hit the pause button, and his skin cracked before he shattered to dust and then the ashes left behind evaporated.

Veon suddenly appeared out of Alek's shadow, grabbing him and then jumping into the nearest shadow to nowhere in particular, trying his best to save his life, and hoping the others would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the next chapter I had fully written out and then I went deleting old documents while being distracted by YouTube and I lost it all. So my motivation for this story came to an end. I've pretty much lost the direction that I was taking this story overall, so recommendations would be appreciated. Until then, this story is officially on hiatus.


End file.
